Meteorites prompt a rash of UFO `sightings'

A huge meteorite shower in the skies over Scotland and Northern Ireland sparked hundreds of calls from worried onlookers reporting UFOs, weather forecasters said yesterday.

Police and coastguards between Stornoway and Glasgow were inundated with calls when the spectacular light display started shortly after 10pm on Wednesday night.

Meteorologists were yesterday investigating the reports, but could not say if more meteorites would be visible. Witnesses spoke of seeing bright lights darting west to east, leaving vapour trails behind them.

A Glasgow Weather Centre spokesman said: "We certainly took a lot of calls ... because when people see an unusual light in the sky they immediately think of UFOs.

"Apparently it was a very large and very bright shower which was visible over much of the country. It would have been quite spectacular."

Reports of the shower came from the Western Isles, Strathclyde and over to Ulster until early yesterday.