Victoria NichollsIt is easy to see how the wide-open skies of East Anglia lend themselves to the mystery and intrigue that surround UFO sightings.So it should be no surprise that newly revealed 'X-Files' include a report of an unexplained sighting over Norwich.Victoria Nicholls

It is easy to see how the

wide-open skies of East Anglia lend themselves to the mystery and intrigue that surround UFO sightings.

So it should be no surprise that newly revealed 'X-Files' include a report of an unexplained sighting over Norwich.

Today, the National Archives is launching its latest online release of secret UFO files that were

compiled by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Among the papers is an

account given by an employee at Norwich Prison in November 1994 who reported seeing strange

lights while looking out over the city from the building on Mousehold Heath.

The statement read: 'At approximately 4.15pm a member of the support staff asked me whether I could identify a row of bright

lights to the west.

'Together we looked at a map of

the city and concluded that the

lights were on the ground in the vicinity of the university. They appeared to be the kind of lights

used on a sports ground. My colleague had not noticed them before.'

The witness described returning to the window the following day at 7.45am and that while searching

the skyline, their eyes were

'made conscious' of two

lights, saying: 'At first I

thought the scene was

ordinary enough; the rising sun

was already strong and it seemed that I was seeing two hot air balloons, formed from a silvery material.'

But they said there were no

baskets or bursts of flame,

adding: 'Without the objects having moved in relation to the building beneath them, after about a minute they both vanished in an instant; they did not diminish in intensity of light or size but vanished from view.'

East Anglia is also highlighted in a sighting in Newmarket in October 1995 of a triangular-shaped craft, glowing bright white that was flying towards Norfolk, higher than a normal aircraft and without navigational lights.

Today marks the fourth

instalment of files being made public as they are transferred from the MoD to the National Archives.

That includes documents

spanning 1981 to 1996 and features papers relating to the famous Rendlesham Forest sightings in

1980, when US Air Force

personnel claimed that a UFO had landed.

As well as featuring a famous

memo by Lt Col Charles Halt detailing events, the files include

the MoD's final position

statement saying there was no evidence of a threat to national defence, and that nothing showed up on radar.

Other highlights include a

close encounter the same year with two youths in Staffordshire

heading home across a field from

an evening out. They reported

being terrified when a lemon-

headed alien supposedly appeared from under a hovering UFO and

said: 'We want you, come with

us.'

Dr David Clarke, a UFO expert

and journalism lecturer at

Sheffield Hallam University, highlighted a leap in reported sightings from 117 in 1995 to 609

in 1996 - the year Independence

Day was released and popular television series the X-Files was at its peak.

He added: 'Aside from 1996,

one of the busiest years for

UFO sightings reported to the

MoD over the past half century

was 1978 - the year Close

Encounters of the Third Kind was released.

'Obviously, films and TV programmes raise public awareness of UFOs and it's fascinating to see how that appears to lead more people to report what they see to the authorities.'

The batch of files is available for download free of charge for a

month at www.nationalarchives.

gov.uk/ufos