UFO investigators are targeting Suffolk in their quest to find alien life.The county has become the focus for alien hunters, in a case worthy of X files agents Mulder and Scully, after a strange sighting of an apparently alien craft in the skies over east Suffolk.

UFO investigators are targeting Suffolk in their quest to find alien life.

The county has become the focus for alien hunters, in a case worthy of X files agents Mulder and Scully, after a strange sighting of an apparently alien craft in the skies over east Suffolk.

Eagle-eyed residents living along the banks of the River Orwell may have witnessed a close encounter of the third kind if they had glanced up at the starry sky.

A strange yellow D-shaped object was spotted overhead by a man in his garden at Freston.

He watched in wonder as the UFO changed shape before it altered course and flew off at around 11pm on August 5.

But instead of phoning home, like Steven Spielberg's ET, the man called the operator who put him through to Contact – an organisation based in Oxfordshire that records and researches UFO sightings.

They treat all reported sightings in the strictest confidence so were not prepared to identify the witness.

The object could not have been very high as the witness saw an aeroplane flying above it, but he knew it was not the moon as he could see this clearly.

It was not the police helicopter either. According to a police spokeswoman the helicopter was not in the area that night.

Contact spokesman, Michael Sopher, said: "It would interesting to know if anyone else saw the same thing.

"Any sightings over the Ipswich area are of great interest to us due to the historic events at Rendlesham. New evidence recently released from the government admits that this event was a proper UFO landing."

Rendlesham is renowned worldwide for the events in 1980 when American airmen claimed a UFO landed in the forest at their airbase.

The events remain unexplained although recently someone came forward claiming to have hoaxed the strange events.

However Mr Sopher believes no one could have damaged leaves hanging 50ft up in the trees or caused the surge in radioactivity measured in the area.

He added: "In East Anglia reported sightings differ from other areas. There are lots of reports of strange objects flying inland from the sea and then back again.

"There was a wave of UFO sightings in Birmingham in June. Many people reported seeing lights zig-zagging in the sky near the airport.

"At the time there was a geomagnetic storm which we believe causes people to be more spontaneous and tends to make people who see something more likely to report it."

N Did you see the strange object? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or visit the forum at www.eveningstar.co.uk.

FACTFILE

Rendlesham – Britain's most famous UFO encounter.

Happened during three nights over Christmas in 1980 when it is a UFO crash landed in Rendlesham Forest close to the American airbase.

Two airmen went to investigate strange lights in the forest and came across a metallic glowing object which manoeuvred through the trees and disappeared.

Animals on the nearby farm were said to have gone into a frenzy.

Two nights later the object reappeared – base commander Lt Col Halt reported in a memo to the Ministry of Defence that he had seen a red sun like object which divided into five.

On the third night the men taped their panicked conversation as they again started to see lights moving through the trees.

The forest is still an attraction for Ufologists today, some of whom will spend whole nights there.

WWW.ufology.org.uk