A Midland UFO sighting has sparked worldwide speculation about the existence of aliens after an amateur pilot spotted six pairs of mysterious lights on Christmas Eve.
Dad-of-two, Andrew Freke, an amateur pilot for more than 15 years, spotted the bright orange lights flying above his Solihull home while he was smoking a cigarette at about 11pm on Christmas Eve.
At first he believed it was simply an aeroplane from nearby Birmingham Airport but he quickly dismissed the idea because the three pairs of lights were silently flying in a zig-zag pattern at about 150 miles-per-hour.
Officials from nearby Birmingham Airport confirmed they had no aircraft matching the description in the area on Christmas Eve.
After Mr Freke's story appeared in the Birmingham Mail last week, people from as far afield as San Francisco and Germany have reported having the same close encounter.
Alexandra Schädlich, from Reichenbach, Saxonia, Germany, said: "My family and I saw the same thing. We saw it at 10pm, 12.30am and 2pm in Saxonia.
"At 12.30am we counted eight balls on the night sky. They changed direction and one also waited for the others on the sky."
American UFO spotter, Brent Hoff, added: "My girlfriend and I had a very similar, but substantially longer and closer experience several years ago in San Francisco.
"I'd be interested in talking to Mr Freke about it."
But the main sightings all seem to be clustered in the Midlands.
Michael Trigg, aged 23, from Sutton Coldfield, spotted a bright orange light zig zag in the sky for a minute shortly after New Year's Eve fireworks and two readers reported four orange lights and a bizarre rotating circular object hovering over their Shirley homes at 9pm on Christmas Day.
Alan Clarke, from Nuneaton, also spotted a series of orange globes flying over his local shops at 5pm on January 2 and the Civil Aviation Authority are now investigating.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "The MOD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.
"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting or report."
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New year's eve was cloudy and rainy in Istanbul. At about midnight, just below the clouds I saw a large, dark orange colored orb rise slowly toward the clouds above. I shouted to my son to bring his cell phone to take a picture but he did not (he was busy talking to friends).It was really large and was a little bit different than just an orb ( I guess it had a vertical part in the middle)but the movement resembled an airplane taking off. I watched it for about 15 seconds before it disappeared into the clouds.