FLASHING green and blue lights and sparks in the night sky over the North Sea prompted dozens of calls to the coastguard on Saturday.Sightings of the explosive spectacle were reported from all along the Suffolk coast up to Lincolnshire and down to Whitstable and Herne Bay in Kent.

FLASHING green and blue lights and sparks in the night sky over the North Sea prompted dozens of calls to the coastguard on Saturday.

Sightings of the explosive spectacle were reported from all along the Suffolk coast up to Lincolnshire and down to Whitstable and Herne Bay in Kent.

Calls were even received from an oil rig in the North Sea and from Holland reporting what the coastguard believes was a meteor between around 8pm and 8.30pm on Saturday.

"It must have been very high for so many people to have seen it over such a wide area," a coastguard spokeswoman said. "Some people thought it was an explosion or a red flare."