UFOS were spotted heading for Warrington in December 1998, according to previously top secret files recently released by the Ministry of Defence.

A group of four people saw ‘a low flying object with three large red lights shining directly underneath it’ before it moved off in the direction of the town centre.

The witness said: “There was no sound associated with the object ... and none of the nearby trees appeared to move from any draught the object may have made at the time of moving off.”

The group which spotted the UFO said it ‘frightened them’.

The MoD confirmed there were no military aircraft in the area at the time and no other reports of UFO sightings on December 3, 1998, at around 11.45pm.