A Bradford businessman has given up his day job to become a full-time UFO investigator.

Russ Kellett, 34, founder of the International UFO Research Network which he runs from his home in Lidget Green, Bradford, said he decided to take the plunge because the region has become such a hotbed of "alien" activity.

He is also writing a book about sightings that he claims will put Bradford firmly on the UFO map.

Mr Kellett, who owns an industrial clothing business at the Carlisle Business centre in Manningham, said his UFO research had become a full-time job because of the number of calls it has generated.

"It's just taken off in a way I'd never dreamed," he said. "We've now got a 24-hour answering service and we're getting 20 or 30 calls a day about sightings.

"Family and friends had a laugh at first about what we did but now they've come to realise just how serious it is.

"People are ringing us who had never believed in UFOs but they know they've seen something.''

The group is also planning a UFO conference in Bradford this summer and is involved with several TV documentaries.

But Mr Kellett played down suggestions that he will be mistaken for Fox Mulder, played by heart-throb actor David Duchovny in the hit TV series the X-Files. "For a start he's better looking," he joked.

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