Police are investigating a UFO sighting after dozens of witnesses saw mysterious lights hovering over the Island on Saturday night.

Police and Harbour Radio switchboards were jammed with callers who spotted the strange lights in the night sky between 7.45. p.m. and 8. p.m.

Eye witness Jean Flath was driving along Middle Road with her husband when they saw the lights.

"It was huge, as big as a stadium arena light,'' Mrs. Flath said.

"At first it looked like a helicopter with a searchlight on it. I can't say how high up it was but it wasn't that high. It was really white and had a shaft coming down.

"Then it just evaporated. It turned into two hazy lights and took off into the air. Then something even stranger happened. I looked across the street and there was this sort of pink haze everywhere, like a mist.'' She added: "I reported it to the Police and they said they had had lots of calls. They suggested it might have been a flare but my husband, who was in the navy for four years, said he knew it wasn't.

"At first I was excited but afterwards, when I realised that I had just seen something really extraordinary, I became frightened. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen -- just phenomenal.'' A Police spokesman confirmed they had received reports of the lights but were baffled as to what they might have been. "Members of the public reported that two streaks of light were seen to pass across the sky from west to east over the south shore,'' the spokesman said. "The first caller reported the lights off Daniel's Head moving east. Other calls were received as the light streaks were seen to apparently travel slowly past Warwick, Paget, Devonshire and Smiths.'' He added: "The streaks then went to a higher altitude through the clouds, leaving a swirling trail of light until it disappeared. This was very mysterious and we haven't been able to come up with a solution as to what it was. It's just something that can't be understood.''