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Dozens witness bright lights 'performing acrobatics' over Canterbury in UFO report to Ministry of Defence, Kent's secret X-Files reveal

St Stephens Hill in Canterbury
St Stephens Hill in Canterbury

Dozens of stunned people came out of their houses to witness a UFO sighting in Kent, top secret X-Files reveal today.

Householders and motorists pointed and stared at the sky as three "very low, very bright" lights performed "acrobatics" over Canterbury, according to a report to the Ministry of Defence.

A concerned Littlebourne resident sent an email to the MoD about multi-coloured lights shooting across the sky "like no plane or helicopter I have ever seen".

The apparent extra-terrestrial encounter is contained in previously secret files released by the National Archives today.

Documents detail sightings reported to the MoD's UFO department in the two years before it was disbanded four years ago.

"The incident was so strange I pulled the car over as dozens of people had come out of their houses and were pointing and staring at the sky..." - UFO report to the MoD

After the sighting at 9.35pm on August 31, 2008, the driver said: "Coming down St Stephen's Hill towards Canterbury, a bright red light passed very quickly behind my car in the rear view mirror.

"I put it down as a low-flying helicopter. As I came down the hill I saw people stopping to look at the sky.

"Further down, a couple were stopped and were pointing at the sky to the east.

"I saw three very low, very bright lights travelling in formation then breaking off and doing acrobatics seen in the sky over Canterbury.

"The lights were large globe-like, traveling very fast and then coming to an almost immediate stop, changing direction in an instant, and changing colour in a pulsating way (not the flashing lights of a plane or helicopter), ranging through bright white light through red, green, blue and orange.

"The incident was so strange I pulled the car over as dozens of people had come out of their houses and were pointing and staring at the sky.

"One commented that 'they flew really low over our house and then shot off really fast, a few miles a second'."

The motorist added they "looked and behaved like no plane or helicopter I have seen".

The MoD responded to the report, saying "there is no corroborating evidence to suggest that the United Kingdom's airspace was breached by unauthorised aircraft".

It added the MoD has no "expertise or role in respect of flying saucer matters to the question of the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial life forms, about which it remains totally open-minded".

How aliens might look if they contacted us
How aliens might look if they contacted us

Other Kent sightings reported to an MOD telephone hotline included a UFO reported over New Romney as well as "three orange orbs and two red orbs" spotted over Cliftonville at 11.45am on August 20, 2009.

Just four days later, a caller spotted "very bright orange lights" blinking over Tunbridge Wells at midnight.

And on September 11 the same year, a "white fixed-wing object" was spotted flying over a field in the river of Underriver near Sevenoaks.

A worried member of the public said it had no cockpit and was silent - yet was not a glider.

The MoD shut down its UFO desk four years ago after being set up in 1950 because nothing reported to it posed a threat to the UK.

Newly released files reveal it served "no defence purpose" and was taking staff away from "more valuable defence-related activities".

Have you seen a UFO in Kent? Leave your comments below.

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