A woman who spotted a UFO over her house twice in a month has expressed her disappointment at the discovery it was likely to be a Chinese lantern.

Long Ditton resident Debbie Leigh first reported seeing a suspicious orange light above her home on February 21 and, exactly a month later, saw the same thing again.

The object was flickering, had no trail behind it and was completely silent, exactly the same as the first sighting.

She said: “When I saw it I thought, oh my god that’s it again. I rushed to get my camera so I could get a picture of it.”

Unfortunately only one picture came out and, after some research, Mrs Leigh’s excitement died down when she came across a website selling Chinese lanterns and realised she had probably not witnessed something extra-terrestrial.

She said: “They normally let off loads of lanterns at the same time so I’m wondering if someone is doing this on purpose.

“It certainly had me fooled. "I’ve since spoke to someone from a UFO website and he said his heart sinks a bit every time he hears about somebody seeing an orange glow.”

Mrs Leigh still believes there is something out there, even though her sighting turned out to be nothing.

David Willey, an investigator at the North Surrey Paranormal Group, said sightings of Chinese lanterns were happening more regularly as they seemed to be “the in thing”.

He said: “I don’t know if people are doing it deliberately or not. "Only recently loads were spotted above Guildford and people thought aliens were invading.”

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