A fleet of strange glowing orbs seen in the skies above Bradford might boost the district’s claim as one of the coun-try’s UFO hotspots but some believe the real truth is out there.

Sky-watchers in Bradford, Bingley and Keighley have contacted the Telegraph & Argus with reports of up to five red or orange orbs hovering silently in the night sky before quickly disappearing.

Denise Wilson, 52, saw them circling above her home in Moorside, Daisy Hill, Bradford, when she took her dog for a night-time stroll.

But medical secretary Mrs Wilson, in-sisted it was no joke. She said: “There were four round red or orange glowing lights flying in formation, cruising towards me.

“There was no noise and the conditions were absolutely still. There was no wind, it was a bright night and I said to the dog, ‘what the hell is that?’ “I went to tell my neighbour but before I even got there, a fifth one came along. They weren’t flying very high, not as high as planes and then they disappeared above the trees.

“I don’t care what people think of me, I know what I saw and it wasn’t normal and it wasn’t man-made. It was very, very strange, like some-thing out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind!”

Retired solicitor Peter Knight, the widow of film star Pat Kirkwood, also reported seeing 20 red lights in the sky near his home in Bingley.

Lights were also seen by Derek Sped-ding, 60, who was visiting friends in Bingley from his home in Barnsley. He saw strange-coloured objects floating in the air as he drove towards the Five Rise Locks from the town centre.

But Mr Spedding, who was with his wife at the time, said he could have an explanation.

He said: “They were like what we saw in China last year. We were going up the Yangtsze River and a local chap had died. When somebody dies, they send up these little lanterns, with a little light under a kind of small hot-air balloon. It is a mark of respect.”