Police confirm surge of reported UFO sightings

UFOs have been spotted regularly in the sky in the past four years, with ghostly activity also prompting 999 calls.

The data, released by Dyfed-Powys Police, includes a caller from Welshpool who reported seeing a UFO "dropping in the distance," and a caller from Llanymynech complaining of objects being moved around the house and the attic door being found open.

There were two reports of UFOs in the police force area last year.

Sian George, Dyfed-Powys Police spokeswoman, said: "Appropriate action is taken in respect of all calls, and enquiries conducted if appropriate and necessary."

Over the past four years, the force has received a number of calls in relation to strange goings on, including one about sheep abduction.

The caller claimed they had seen sheep being taken on board an unidentified flying object from a field in Llanybydder, near Lampeter.

In the same year, 2011, a caller from Aberystwyth reported they were previously abducted by aliens, experimented on, then returned to earth.

It brings the total number of UFO sightings reported in the force area, which is home to a sightings hotspot once dubbed "the Welsh triangle" to 27 since 2002.

Powys isn't alone in being a hotspot for UFO sightings – Shropshire has its own X-Files incident.

At about 1.15am on March 31, 1993, in what has been dubbed the Cosford Incident, there were dozens of sightings across western Britain of triangular shaped UFOs moving across the sky at speed. An MoD police patrol reported seeing bright lights in the sky over RAF Cosford.

The officers called the meteorological officer at Shawbury to tell him to look out for a UFO. He then claimed to have seen "a vast triangular shaped craft flying at about 200ft" which made a low humming noise and fired a narrow beam of light which swept the ground.

In October 2007, mother Claire Jackson and her family were followed by mysterious lights. Photos she took revealed a number of spooky orbs around the lights, on the edge of Whitchurch.

Meanwhile, in September 2010, Joshua Lester-Rigg said he witnessed "a huge fireball" crossing the sky and plummeting down to earth in Stirchley, Telford. "I don't know if what I saw was a UFO or a meteorite," he said.

In May 2011 a video of strange orange lights in the skies above Shropshire and Mid Wales became a hot topic online.

Some of the strangest tales in Shropshire:

• Jan 2007: Retired policeman Mike Lindop was in his home in Wellington when he saw a strange tubular object in the sky, travelling at speed towards Newport

• Apr 2007: Phil Hoyle said he received calls from members of the public who saw large triangular shaped craft in the sky above Haughmond Hill

• Jul 2007: Lights were seen at Montford Bridge

• Jan 2009: Mark Young, from Telford, reported lights above Clive Barracks at Tern Hill. Some readers believe they were Chinese lanterns

• Feb 2009: Pensioner John Ward spotted five lights near Wrekin Retail Park in Telford. Trish Fryer, of St Georges, and George Cooper, of Knockin, also got in touch with similar reports

• Feb 2010: Three residents spoke of an orange ball of light in the sky. Cherie Hussain captured on camera a light over Malinslee.