UFO experts firmly believe Suffolk is a portal for visiting alien craft - and flying saucers are hovering in the county's skies daily.

Richard Cornwell

UFO experts firmly believe Suffolk is a portal for visiting alien craft - and flying saucers are hovering in the county's skies daily.

Over the past month there have been sightings of strange lights in the sky between Kesgrave, Grundisburgh and Framsden, at Felixstowe, Leiston and Aldeburgh - many of which remain unexplained.

Tonight The Evening Star's website launches a new section - Stargate Suffolk - to keep everyone up to date with all the stories and sightings of alien craft, mystery lights and even little green men.

It will be an interactive section and we want readers to let us have their thoughts and experiences of unexplained phenomena.

Brenda Butler, an expert on UFOs who lectures all over the country, said there were constant UFO visits to Suffolk and she receives reports of sightings weekly.

“There is definitely a portal here in Suffolk, a doorway which they use to visit earth,” said Ms Butler, of Mafeking Place, Leiston.

“Many people felt at one time it was because of the American air force bases, but I don't think that is the reason because my research shows we have had these unexplained sightings here since the 1600s.

“I have seen extra terrestrials, orbs, craft, lights streaking across the sky - I have more than 1,000 photos to back up these claims.

“There have been a fair share since New Year's Eve and they are definitely not Chinese lanterns.

“When we are at Rendlesham we constantly have people coming up to us talking about strange things they have seen at the forest.”

Ms Butler, who has co written a book about alien landings in the forest, believes the truth of the famous incident in 1980 outside the USAF Woodbridge air base has been covered up by government officials.

Slow-moving floating lights seen between Grundisburgh and Mendlesham are likely though to have been Chinese lanterns.

Sara Hinchliffe said nine were sent up from her street in Kesgrave on New Year's Eve and then another to celebrate her daughter Hannah's ninth birthday on January 10 and felt these could be what people saw.

- Tell us your UFO experiences - write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk and log on to www.eveningstar.co.uk to visit Stargate Suffolk.

REPORTS of a dull grey craft able to move at great speed are being investigated after it was seen over Suffolk.

The craft was seen on two consecutive days - January 7 and 8 - in the early hours by two men at Leiston.

UFO expert Brenda Butler was able to interview one of the men after his wife reported the incident.

“The men are both very sceptical but they cannot explain what they saw,” she said.

At 1.30am the men saw the craft, about 30ft across and 100ft up, moving slowly at first and then shoot off at great speed.

“It was not a plane or a helicopter and they say they saw it quite clearly. It made the hairs on their head and neck stand up,” she said.

“Last week we had another sighting of a cigar-shaped object at Aldeburgh which a dog walker saw zoom off at great speed.

“Three weeks before Christmas there was another sighting at Rendlesham when a huge orange orb came whizzing over the forest.”

Ms Butler said the most dramatic incident she had been involved in happened at Aldringham in 1979 when a UFO landed in a field near her home. She found huge holes the next day where soil had been scooped away and taken, but no tyre marks or footprints.

Farmers in several parts of Suffolk and Norfolk reported similar incidents the same night.

FASTFACTS: Suffolk's Roswell

- It was December 27, 1980, that strange lights were reported inside Rendlesham Forest close to the Bentwaters and Woodbridge air bases.

- American airmen at USAF Woodbridge reported seeing the lights at 4am and sent out men to investigate.

- Indentations were found in the ground and unexplained marks appeared on trees.

- The only explanation given for the lights was that it could have been the sweeping beam of the Orford lighthouse, but ufologists are not convinced.

- Books, documentaries and hundreds of articles have been written about the incident and enthusiasts still believe the truth is out there.

- Today people can walk the three-mile UFO trail in the forest which pinpoints the area where the incident happened.