In the varied world of local newspapers, we find that there are few things that get people talking quite as much as possible "UFO" sightings.

Since last week's article about mystery lights in the skies over Luton and Houghton Regis, this news desk has been inundated with readers sharing their own experiences.

From witnesses, sceptics and self-professed UFO fanatics, here is a selection of the responses....

Eaton Bray lights:

Nemide Ibrahim got in touch over the weekend saying she spotted something unusual in the air as she drove out of Eaton Bray on Saturday.

She was with her partner heading in the direction of Mead Open Farm when two lights appeared in the sky shortly after 7pm.

Nemide recalled: "As we were driving out of Eaton Bray we noticed some very strange bright red lights hovering very low in the sky.

"There were distinctively two red lights together. One was a constant red light, while the other directly next to it flashed continuously red."

Nemide said that at first she thought it could have been an aeroplane or a helicopter, and she added: "We cannot be 100 per cent sure of what it actually was, but it definitely did not have any distinctive markings, sounds, shape or any recognisable features that you would expect to see on any known aircraft.

"There was no shape of a plane or helicopter to be made out, just the two red lights together."

She said the mysterious lights vanished from sight before reappearing and heading in the direction of Edlesborough and Eaton Bray.

Craning necks in Leagrave:

But reader Laura Field helpfully pointed out that many people craning their necks to spot a spacecraft in the Leagrave area could actually just be spotting a crane.

After seeing last week's front page she said: "There's been a lot of talk about UFOs in the Leagrave area as well over the past few weeks, however I'm pretty sure what the cause of it all is.

"There is a massive tower crane on the old Elm Trees site in Grange Avenue, it's a bright red light and can be see for miles around.

"You can't see any part of the crane when it's dark, so it could easily be mistaken for something else.

"My other half was out walking our dog late one night last week and it freaked him out until he realised what it was the next morning."

But Dave Fullbrook, who featured on last week's front page article, said yesterday that the lights he spotted above the Luton & Dunstable Hospital had nothing to do with the crane.

He said: "I saw that (the crane), but I saw this other red thing further up, it was further up in the air than the crane. There were two red things up in the air that night."

And he added that although he has kept an eye out over the past week, he hasn't seen anything since.

"I haven't seen ET flying across just yet," he joked.

Red light in Houghton:

Also contacting the news desk was Lorraine Saunders, who spotted a red light in the sky above Houghton Regis.

But she is confident that there was a more rational information.

She told us: "It passed directly in front of me as I approached the Co-Op in Houghton and appeared to hang in the air, but it acted as a flare would act and after a short while fell downward and then was gone.

"I don't know where it came from, but it most definitely was not alien."

Aliens set to be unveiled in five years?

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, emails have also been arriving from all over the world.

One carried a report claiming that the United Nations has set up a secret UFO working group, and that extraterrestrials are set to show up in 2013.

It concluded: "Overall, it appears that a countdown is underway to official disclosure around 2013, and the nation states and the UN are being briefed.

"The acclimation process will accelerate over the next five years as UFO sightings increase around the globe, forcing governments to make public policy statements on UFOs and extraterrestrial life.

"Is this the start, the truth is finally stepping onto the world stage? Time will tell."