NIGHTCLUB spotlights could be the answer to mysterious lights in the sky that kept some Ipswich residents spellbound over the Christmas period.The Evening Star was inundated with calls in the New Year from people who had seen huge bright lights across the east of Ipswich over a series of nights.

By Jessica Nicholls

NIGHTCLUB spotlights could be the answer to mysterious lights in the sky that kept some Ipswich residents spellbound over the Christmas period.

The Evening Star was inundated with calls in the New Year from people who had seen huge bright lights across the east of Ipswich over a series of nights.

Questions of extra terrestrial activity in the region were soon in people's minds as no explanation could be found.

Many people, some as far away as Wickham Market, described seeing bright lights behind the clouds.

Some saw smaller lights moving in and out of larger lights, others noticed several circles of lights surrounding one another.

The lights were so bright that they lit up living rooms in the Valley Road area and even woke one reader up in the early hours of the morning in the Sidegate Lane area.

But Kartouche Nightclub in Princes Street could now have provided the answer to the mystery.

Rob Calvert, lighting and sound engineer for the club said that special spotlights the club had hired out called Star Flowers over the festive period could be to blame.

The light was hired from Blackjack sound and lighting company in Martlesham Heath.

Blackjack owner Steve Williamson said that it could be a likely explanation and was glad that so many people had seen them.

He said: "There are three rings of twelve lights with one ring surrounding another ring.

"They rotate and open and close and are supposed to have coverage of about five miles but I know that some people in Woodbridge saw them.

"If there is a lot of moisture in the air and it is quite damp then it will pick up."

Mr Williamson added that the light has only really been used in flat places such as Milton Keynes and believes that beams rebounding off hills may have lighted up people's rooms.

He said: "Kartouche is down in a bit of a dip and houses in the Valley Road area are on higher ground so it might be that the light was not directly angled at the sky and rebounded.

"We have never had reports like this before though."

However Mr Williamson added that the light was set at the recommended angle, needed to get permission from the Civil Aviation Society to use it.

Mr Calvert from Kartouche did apologise to people who might have been disturbed by the light, if indeed it is the explanation, but warned them that it will be back next year.

He said: "You cannot see it that much when you are close up but DJ's coming in from Felixstowe said they saw it on the way in."