A Devizes family had an encounter of the eerie kind when they saw lights in the sky on New Year’s Day.

Andrew Collier, 37, of Elm Tree Gardens, said the lights have to be described as unidentified flying objects, although he agrees they could be Chinese lanterns released by revellers.

He and his wife Helen saw the lights after going out to look at fireworks set off at midnight. Mr Collier said: “After the fireworks finished, we saw these bright orange lights in the sky. At first we thought they were embers from the fireworks but they stayed there.

“It went on for about an hour and at one point there were three in the sky at one time. Then at 9.15pm that evening there were more of them. It was quite surreal.

“Helen rang the police and they told her that they’d had a report from Staverton, so it wasn’t just Devizes.”

Mr Collier acknowledged the lights could have been Chinese lanterns, but added: “They were really travelling, not just drifting.”

Chinese lanterns, banned in the US as a fire risk, are paper lanterns with a candle-like heat source which, when lit, float into the sky until the candle burns out.