Whitby could be turning into a UFO hotspot with yet more reports flooding into the Gazette offices of mysterious lights in the sky.

The phenomenon has also been spotted in other parts of the country and even hit the front page of a national newspaper yesterday when a UFO was believed to have hit a 300ft wind turbine tearing off its giant 65ft blades, baffling power chiefs.

A holidaymaker who spent his new year break in Whitby has told of his surprise at seeing a ball of flames in the sky near the abbey on New Year's Day evening.

Graeme Edwards (38) from Allendale in Northumbria was walking across Whitby's swing bridge with his dad, Alan.

At first they thought it was a hot air balloon but it was moving too fast.

They spotted a round ball of bright orange flames at about 7.45pm as they were walking across the swing bridge to the east side of Whitby.

He said: "It was something like a ball of fire in the sky from the bridge looking towards the abbey above the hill looking east.

"It was travelling south relatively slowly - too quick for a hot air balloon firing its burners as there was no wind in the sky but it could have been a plane with an engine on fire, or so I thought.

"My father thought he saw four lights but to me it just looked like a fireball.

"I also thought it could have been a comet or something burning through the atmosphere.

"It was difficult to get perspective on it to see how big or close it was as it was pitch black.

"Other people stood and watched too."

And Joanne Rowe (27) of Elgin Street, in Whitby, also spotted a ball of light as she was walking her dog near Airy Hill School at around 5.10pm on New Year's Day.

She said there was just one light travelling really really fast before stopping and slowly fading away.

"It looked like some kind of rocket," she said. "It definitely wasn't an aeroplane."

Other mysterious lights have been spotted on Christmas Day too by a couple in Hinderwell.

Jill Standell (54) and her husband Robert of High Street said they both saw the lights hovering over Roxby and Boulby Mine at around 6pm.

Jill had been on her way home in her car when she spotted the lights.

She said: "They were going and going. Sometimes there were five. Then there were another two or three, then there would be eight or nine.

"By the time I arrived in High Street they were still in the sky.

"I was really gobsmacked.

I didn't want to take my eyes off them in case they disappeared."

Her husband Bob, a builder, added: "They looked like they were some sort of candle-powered lantern or hot air balloon.

"The orange flame glowed really bright like an orb."

Last week the Gazette reported how Harry Ramsay (69) and his wife Carole (64) of Whitby's Laburnum Grove spotted five red balls of light in the sky towards Sandsend at around 6.30pm on the previous Monday.

And on 2 January we reported another mystery of lights over Runswick Bay which were unwittingly captured on camera by a teenager and only just discovered following his holiday in August.

Did you see the strange lights in the sky? Call our newsdesk on (01947) 829911.