UFO researchers believe they had a close encounter when they saw bright lights hovering over moorland.

The pair were stopped in their tracks by two bright lights hovering above the hills between Cowling and Utley.

Amazingly, the researchers were on their way home from seeing a man who claims to have been abducted by strange beings.

The members of the International UFO Research Network were just outside Skipton when they pulled their car in to the side of the road to get a better look at the strange lights. As one of the researchers, Russell Kellett, prepared to take a picture of the lights the batteries in his camera failed. In the few seconds it took him to fit new batteries the huge craft vanished before their eyes.

He explains: "At first we thought it could have been something like car lights. When we got closer to it we could see two very bright lights moving in front of each other. From what we could see the craft must have been twice the size of a jumbo jet."

The encounter with the mysterious object took place last Wednesday, April 8, at 11.15pm and lasted for two minutes.

It was an incredible night for the researchers who were on the way back from seeing a man in Barnoldswick who claims he was abducted from his home by strange beings.

According to Russell, a similar craft was spotted on Feb-ruary 2 by people in Yorkshire and Lancashire,. On each occasion the mystery object was not detected by radar.

He says: "We try to see if we can link together reported incidents and predict where the next one will be. There are more people willing to believe us than there used to be, and we are constantly coming across things which we have no explanation for."

Since the turn of the century the moors around Keighley have held a magnetic attraction for strange phenomena, with reports of UFO sightings dating back to 1908. Some experts believe the areas of high UFO activity can be linked to ancient burial sites and areas where there are fault lines in the ground. Others believe many UFO sightings are of top-secret aircraft being test-flown from bases in the north of England by the British and American governments.

Anyone who believes they have seen a UFO can contact Russell on 01274 501463.

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