TWO MEN are convinced they saw a UFO from a garden in Lancaster last Friday night.

Gunnar Hellstrom and Chris Kay, from Lancaster, spoke with wonder of the event that happened when they were fitting some lighting into the beer garden at the Ring o' Bells pub.

Chris Kay, who is halfway through a science degree said, " I idly looked up at the sky when I saw a loose formation of red lights that were shaped in a band."

"I was amazed when I saw them because of the way that they were moving. They were travelling at the speed you would expect from an aircraft."

He added, "The strangest things was that some were accelerating quickly, some were slowing down and some were sliding sideways. They were swapping positions but then always catching up with each other."

He pondered: "It was difficult to estimate the height because it was such a clear night. I'd say about 8,000 metres." At that point Chris notified Gunnar who is currently unemployed and who said: " It really freaked me out. Moving in a North Westerly direction were eight or nine lights that looked like a star constellation - but swapping places - mad!"

The two men then ran into the pub to tell everybody. Barmaid Karen O'Conner said, " They were behaving like children - I've never seen anyone so giddy and they hadn't been drinking."

Chris Kay claims that he is a rational person and scientifically trained. Thinking long and hard about the situation he has ruled out anything that could not be some strange phenomenon. He concluded, " I can't think of any explanation - it wasn't meteorological. In any case it definitely wasn't moving naturally. The only possibility for identification would be some very new, strange form of technology - who knows."

Checks with local airfields and BAe have revealed that nothing untoward was notified to them but if you saw the lights ring our news desk.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.