A group of drinkers who claim to have spotted UFOs as they came out of their local pub were also plunged into darkness.

Lord Nelson pub landlord Keith Gelderd and his locals watched the shapes glowing in the sky but were then greeted by house alarms going off as the whole village suffered a blackout.

Keith from Poppleton, near York told The Sun: "If I live to be 100 I'm sure I will never see anything like it again. At first there were two spheres hovering in the distance. When they started to move they made no sound.

"There were seven or eight of us watching. As they moved towards us two more appeared.

"They were all in a line, then one moved 180 degrees around the one next to it. As they left all the electricity went off and you could hear alarms. Then it came back on again.

"None of us was drunk. What were they? Flying saucers? "

Bricklayer Jason Mitchinson, added: "It was the strangest thing I've seen. They were an orange flame colour with an outer ring that glowed.

"They just cruised along. They stopped over the pub, then headed for Scarborough. When they turned it was tight, at 90 degrees, not like a plane."