Strange lights seen hovering over Worksop on New Year's Eve are now thought to be an array of Chinese Lanterns released to celebrate 2008.

And we want to know if you know which unsuspecting revellers have unwittingly caused such a stir in the town.

As the champagne corks popped to welcome in the new year the unexplained lights are reported to have been hovering over Worksop skies at about 12.15am.

Jan and John Harvey, of Carlton Road, were getting ready for bed when they looked out the window and saw something they couldn't explain.

"At first my husband thought I was seeing things. I said it wasn't fireworks or a police helicopter. They were these strange lights drifting along like a helium balloon. They were in a line like pearls lined up in a necklace," said Jan.

"There were eight or nine red and white lights. They weren't making any noise and they just disappeared without coming over the houses."

Not convinced that these lights were from alien spaceships, the couple are thinking hard about a more logical explanation:

"We think it was probably something like hot air balloons or hang-gliders. Though our friends all reply with the same answer - 'You obviously had had far too much to drink'. We had not even started then."

Another couple in Gateford told the Guardian about a similar sighting at the same time on the same night.

"I'm not normally one to believe in these things but I am one hundred per cent definite about what I saw that night," she said.

They first noticed something strange in the air when their two cats started behaving strangely.

"The cats were hiding behind the sofa and seemed really spooked. At midnight when I saw some lights going off outside I thought they were just fireworks."

"I saw about eight lights going over the rugby club. It was like they were all trying to get in a line. They started as a kind of red light and changed to an amber glow. They began moving quite slowly and speeded up. After about 15 minutes they vanished."

There were two similar UFO reports in other parts of the county on the website www.ufo.com/sightings.

A posting from six people in Carlton read: "They seemed to wait for each other as they stopped mid-air before slowly disappearing. I also saw bunches of blue lights which were harder to see. Everything was quiet, no engine sounds."

Did you spot anything odd in the sky as you were involved in the New Year festivities? Have you heard talk about spaceships and aliens and put it down to one to many beers? Do you have a logical explanation to throw some light on what it might have been? If so we'd love to hear about it.

Call the Guardian on 01909 543011 or email jen.foster@worksop-guardian.co.uk.

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