Hot on the heels of the Flying Dorito and Inverted Meat Dish, spaceship spotters have been contacting the Express & Star in their droves to share their strange stories of the skies.

Tales have included a "hyperspeed bright light" darting across the Moxley skyline and three bright oranges orbs hanging silently over Bloxwich. Thomas Lloyd, aged 69, of Great Bridge Road, Moxley, said he was converted into a believer after seeing a bright light in the sky.

Mr Lloyd, a retired upholsterer, spotted the object two years ago outside the Moxley 's Red Lion pub. He said: "It was too bright to be a star and definitely wasn't a plane. It started off quite slowly but then suddenly went into hyperspeed. It stopped for a moment, came down and formed a triangle shape. Then it sped away again. It was a single bright light, and it was moving too fast to be anything of this earth. The way it moved and changed speeds and direction was very odd.

"I told my drinking buddies in the pub but they just looked at me like I'd had one too many, but I'd only had a few shandies.

"I know what I saw was not of this world."

Margaret Bull, of Ashbourne Road, Bloxwich, saw three bright orange globes above her house at 9.30pm on February 10.

Mrs Bull, a retired sales worker, said: "It was a beautifully clear night, and they were just hanging there in the air silently. The globes were very, very bright. The balls were moving really slowly and headed in the direction of Cannock. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture but I couldn't move. My husband saw them too, and we are sure it was a UFO. I've never seen anything like it and probably never will again.

"We are not the sort of people to make things up or be silly - I am a believer now."

This month the Express & Star told how a policeman spotted an "inverted meat dish flying through the air" above Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital in 1981. The tale came to light after the Ministry Of Defence released its very own X Files to the public for the first time.

Experts have branded the Black Country, and Wolverhampton in particular, a UFO hotspot.

Last December, scores of people reported seeing an orange triangle, dubbed the Flying Dorito, in the skies over Wednesfield and Dudley.