For years, the Ministry of Defence recorded UFO sightings reported by members of the public.

We took a look across the areas all the areas covered by our titles in south London, north Kent and north Surrey and put together a list.

Some of them have more detail than others, but there are some brilliantly vague entries.

For example, "something interesting" was seen in Cobham on June 28, 2008. And on January 15, 2001, somebody in Southfields reported seeing a "very large white light, which turned the sky blue". Presumably they had seen the sunrise.

It is perhaps no surprise that the MoD closed its UFO desk in 2009, claiming there was "no defence benefit" in running the service.

An internal memo read: "The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities."

The upsurge is evident in the list below, with a much larger number of recordings in the latest year.

Here they are, from 1997 to 2009.

2009

  • Jan 26 at 18:15 - Bromley: Three orange lights in horizontal line above the opposite side of the hill. Stopped car but saw only four lights, two separate at the top & two close together at the bottom. Top two rose and disappeared. Second two moved higher then also vanished.
  • Feb 8 at 21:00 - Sutton: Five UFOs. Bright round orange lights. Made no noise. Disappeared in direction on London.
  • Feb 22 - south east London: An object with a white and alternating red lights at an angle. Came from south east London towards Canary Wharf. It stopped in mid-air and an alternating sequence of red lights flashed at 180 degrees. Lights switched side instantly.
  • Feb 23 at 22:52 - south east London: It was the flashing of a huge object with one normal and two green lights. It was flying low. Only saw it for four seconds than it vanished from sight.
  • Mar 17 - Croydon: A bright orange light, the size of a helicopter. It looked like a flame or a flare but made no sound. It was moving very slowly.
  • Apr 25 at 10:15 - Croydon: A bright red light over the house.
  • Apr 30 at 20:30 - Sutton: A bright green light that whizzed about the sky for an hour. It was very fast and a few planes got in its way.
  • Jul 28 at 09:30 - Bromley: Saw an orange, yellow object in the sky, with the shape similar to a hot air balloon.
  • Aug 1 at 10:00 - Croydon: 60-70 lights, suddenly disappearing
  • Aug 5 - Mitcham: Saw four strange orange lights in the sky following each other. Lights then just disappeared. Lights then seen again moving across the night sky. Went inside and saw the same lights in a three prong triangle.
  • Aug 31 at 21:45 - Twickenham: Ball of fire in the sky.
  • Sep 9 at 20:30 - Epsom: Thirty orange globes, in four waves, travelling at a constant speed. May have been lanterns of some kind but they would have been 1-2 Metres in diameter.
  • Sep 9 at 21:20 - Tooting: Black sphere. Bobbing about half a mile away . Covered with a phosphorus chemical cloud. It goes light grey. Flash of lightening then re-appears. Some of the clouds light up. Various sightings 20:30 and 12:15.
  • Sep 19 at 19:40 - Bromley: A bright orange light moving across the sky no noise
  • Oct 17 at 22:45 - Orpington: Twenty-five lights red and orange with vapour trail, disappearing into blue green colours, spinning.
  • Oct 28 at 21:18 - Hampton Court: Bright orange glow arched over him appeared for 15 seconds then went upwards.
  • Nov 1 at 17:44 - Beckenham: Three orange objects, then four more joined them.

Your Local Guardian:

2008

  • Jun 7 at 23:00 - Croydon: A strange object was seen in the sky. It was around for several minutes, and then flew off.
  • Jun 28 Cobham: Something interesting.
  • Jul 29 at midnight - South Croydon: A UFO.
  • No Firm Date (message taken on June 30) - New Malden: A UFO, stationary up in the sky for the last few days.
  • No Firm Date (message taken on October 10) New Malden: Two strange objects in the sky. They were together and then they followed each other.
  • No Firm Date (message taken on December 15 at 21:00) Coulsdon: Two very strong, clear white lights.
  • 2007
  • Apr 20 at21:30 - Bexley: There were over fifty lights floating in the sky. They were red/orange in colour
  • No Firm Date (message taken on May 30 at 22:43) - Clapham: A UFO was travelling from Clapham to Heathrow.
  • No Firm Date (message taken on September 10 at 20:00) - Epsom: There were about 25 large, extremely bright orange lights in the sky, with one bigger light behind the rest.

2006

  • Feb 15 at 20:40 - Mitcham: Two bright lights, which were then joined by a third bright light, which then flew alongside them.
  • Mar 3 - Streatham: Two objects were seen in the sky.
  • Dec 17 at 18:45 - Cobham: White object moving from North to South. Looked like the object was burning up. Trail behind it that lasted a few seconds.

2005

  • Feb 21 at 10:00 - Teddington: Something was seen in the sky.
  • 2003
  • Feb 25 at 23:00 - Southfields: Object, not a plane, not on flight path and not a star.
  • Jun 21 at 16:43 - Richmond: A doughnut shaped object was spotted moving from left to right, side to side. One side was shiny and reflective, and the other black.
  • Jun 21 at 12:32 - Wimbledon: Just said something was seen for three seconds. (Didn't specify).
  • Nov 17 at 02:25 - Bromley: police officers/Police helicopter crew reported there were 20-30 red flashing lights in the sky accompanied by a whirring noise.

Your Local Guardian:

2002

  • Feb 16 at 22:50 - Walton-on-Thames: One oval disc seen, with green and red flashing lights.
  • Apr 7 at 21:30 - Walton-on-Thames: One round object with red and green flashing lights. Bobbing from side to side.
  • Apr 8 at 22:00 - Walton-on-Thames: One small disc shaped object with red and green flashing lights.

2001

  • Jan 15 at 18:00 - Southfields: Very large white light, which turned the sky blue.
  • Nov 5 at 18:30 - South Croydon: Three to four objects that were smaller than a large aircraft. Were triangular in shape, white and very bright.

2000

  • May 28 01:30 - Dartford: Six to seven, round, but flat objects. White and fairly bright - clearly visible. They made rapid, random movements.
  • Sep 24 00:02 - Twickenham: One, possibly two golden lights. Moving incredibly fast, then disappeared.
  • Oct 30 at 09:00 - Plumstead: Object - size of a small pea at arm’s length, round, illuminated from within, (a sort of glowing white). Looked three dimensionally solid.
  • Nov 1 at 09:31 - Dartford: One pinpoint of light, quite bright. Erratic movements, from side to side.

1999

  • Feb 9 at 20:06 - Wandsworth: One object that was hovering.
  • Apr 15 at 02:19 - Tooting: One circular object. White and bright
  • Oct 24 at 19:40 - Kingston: Green light was seen projecting from the cloud, followed by a pulsed wave of green light. Very bright. In a Southerly direction.
  • Nov 29 23:34 - Dartford: Small light, too far away to ascertain shape. Glittering red, green and white. Did not move.

1998

  • Mar 10 at 20:55 - Cheam: Very bright, pink light. Shot off at high speed.
  • Apr 28 23:40 - Twickenham: Single white light. It had a faint light behind it. It was moving slowly.
  • Jul 27 23:20 - Twickenham: One large, circular object, that had blue lights that were spinning.
  • Sep 5 at 16:30 - Esher: Several pairs of small, elliptical, silver objects descending from the sky.
  • Nov 4 at 04:00 - Morden: A ball of changing colour, with lots of different coloured lights around it. Made helicopter sounds. It stayed in place for about two hours.

1997

  • Feb 13 at 17:30 - Croydon: Two objects that had one blue and one orange light. They were very bright. They were stationary and then there was erratic movement.
  • Feb 14 at 07:45 - Streatham: One airship shaped object. It was black. It was drifting smoothly.
  • May 19 at 23:17 - Bromley: One round shaped object, double the size of a star. White (pale), but very bright. It was stationary for a while and then travelled straight and level.
  • May 31 - Wandsworth: One large, star like object. White in colour. Was moving slow from North to South.
  • Jul 26 at 01:00 - Croydon: One blue, white and grey object. Was a big swirl like a dust storm, then a circle within a circle, like a gas ring. The centre was transparent then changed into a straight line
  • Aug 2 at 22:18 - Twickenham: Two UFOs. Both were white and were very dim. They were moving West, and making erratic movements.
  • Aug 2 at midnight - Balham: A football shaped object. It had a very bright light. Left a trail behind it, as it skimmed across the sky. It then disappeared.
  • Aug 8 at 23:30 - Kingston: Two objects, both the size of a saloon car. Both were very bright. They were bouncing about all over the sky.
  • Aug 9 at 18:00 - Molesey: One object. Was angular. It was moving Eastwards and was rising in the sky.
  • Oct 13 at 18:50 - Walton-on-Thames: One star shaped object. White in colour. It moved from South West to North East.
  • Nov 22 at 05:00 - Beckenham: One, round shaped object. Had red, green and blue colours and was very bright. Was moving East.