THIS strange unidentified flying object was spotted over a North Yorkshire town on two consecutive nights – only after Government files revealed numerous accounts of UFO sightings in the county.

Colin Coulson took the photographs of the objects, which he spotted over Pickering on Saturday night and again on Sunday night.

He said on the second occasion, they seemed to be closer to Malton than his vantage point in Pickering.

The pictures were taken from the top of Pickering Market Place.

The Government files provide a raft of documents, drawings and letters describing alleged encounters with strange, unidentified aircraft in North Yorkshire.

One happened at RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk, on September 19, 1952. Men from the No.269 Squadron claimed to have witnessed an unidentified flying object, silver and disc-shaped, swinging in a pendulum motion not too dissimilar to a falling sycamore leaf.

Their report, which stated that the sighting lasted around 20 seconds, was supported by a number of civilian witnesses outside of the base.

Three separate reports concerned an unidentified flying object at Menwith Hill, the RAF station near Harrogate in 1972.

Lighted objects were seen over the base sporadically for weeks, with no official explanation except for a brief statement issued by the MoD confirming that “no flying saucer was in the vicinity of Menwith Hill and the base had no connection with UFO research.”

One file includes sightings of a UFO “the size of a battleship” near Fylingdales Moor, in North Yorkshire, in 1998.