A symbolic number of UFO specialists - 13 people - have spent two days in mysterious forests near the town of Rezh in Sverdlovsk Region, where local dacha owners have observed flying saucers and shining balls, Rossiya TV "Vesti Ural" regional news slot reported on 23 June.

"I was walking in the forest; the day was gloomy and everything was calm. Suddenly, I heard a deafening sound, as if somebody was throwing metal sheets. I walked on for another 20 m., looked around but saw nothing, and then I understood that I was in an absolutely unknown place," Boris Filimonov, a local mushroom picker who claims he was abducted by aliens, told UFO specialists.

The man also showed his forefinger with a strange mark on his nail that looked like an implant, which he claims was put there by aliens.

The members of the Kosmopoisk public scientific organization were surprised by the radiation level reading in the area, which stood at 23 micro-roentgen per hour. The general radiation level is supposed to be 11 micro-roentgen per hour in this region, the UFO specialists were reported as saying.

Aleksey Komanev, the coordinator of a group of scientists studying paranormal phenomena in the Urals, said he believed eyewitnesses' stories about flying objects in this paranormal zone, but unfortunately he had not seen unidentified flying objects (UFOs) himself.

There at least 100 paranormal zones in Sverdlovsk Region. The ufologists' next expedition will be to Sukhoy Log later this summer; a woman who became paralysed after encountering a UFO lives there, the report said.

Source: GTRK Ural TV, Yekaterinburg, in Russian 1130 gmt 23 Jun 08