According to X-Files’ Mulder and Scully, “the truth is out there”. But residents in Wandsworth have been left baffled by a series of events which happened in the night sky last Monday.

Strange lights spotted in the sky over Wandsworth Common and Balham convinced residents UFOs had visoted the “Brighter Borough”.

Residents living in different parts of the borough contacted the police and the Wandsworth Borough News claiming to have witnessed a strange series of lights.

Red and white lights zipping through the sky between 10pm and midnight last Monday had residents in the Wandsworth Common and Balham areas in a spin.


Brian Sliman, of Thurleigh Road, was walking past his window when he saw the unusual phenomena.

“Where I live in Balham, I have a perfect view of the flight path from Heathrow Airport. I’m quite used to aircraft and Chinooks flying past but these lights looked like they were actually being launched from Heathrow,” he said.

“They were white and red in colour with a blue-ish trail, and formed a triangle shape when they flew past my window. I couldn’t believe my eyes so I called my nephew, who is 22, into the room and he saw exactly the same as I did.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am that other people have called this in as well, I was considering going to see a psychiatrist.”

Wandsworth Common resident, Lee Foskett, added: “At about 10.30pm on Monday night, I looked out of my kitchen window and saw this red ball, which looked like a star. It stood still and then slowly started moving, all of a sudden another one appeared from behind the building opposite my flat.

“They just sat there until another one came along which was higher than the other two, making a triangular shape.

“I called my daughter who thought it was very strange and was quite scared.”

In recent years, sightings of this kind have been dismissed as Chinese lanterns but UFO expert and former Ministry of Defence employee, Nick Pope, is not entirely convinced by this theory.

He said: “Chinese lanterns are almost exclusively red and orange and drift on the wind. The colours mentioned are slightly unusual, particularly the blue trail. But, if the reports witnessed a perfect triangular shape, then it raises the possibility of it being genuine. However, it could also be atmospheric plasma or a meteorological phenomena.”

A Wandsworth police spokesman said: “On Monday evening we had five calls, from three people, all saying they saw the same thing - a red light moving like a boomerang. The calls were all from the SW12, SW17 and SW18 area.”

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