Mystery sightings of orange orbs floating across evening sky

Several sightings of the strange spherical objects have been reported in recent days.

Nina Seymour said she saw the object travelling north-west to south-east over the Haylands Estate on Portland at around 9.20pm on Saturday night.

“It was silent and rapidly disappeared into the clouds,” she said.

Peter Hunt then spotted an almost identical sight on Sunday evening as he was watching the kite festival firework display from his house on Bincleaves Road, Weymouth.

He said: “I noticed what looked like a circular orange light in a clear bit of sky.

“I thought it was a helicopter but it didn’t change at all as it came over.

“It was travelling quite fast and disappeared towards Portland.

“It travelled very steadily in a straight line and moved rapidly.”

Similar sightings have also been reported across the area.

David Haigh was among those to spot the unusual lights when he was heading home on the bus from Weymouth town centre to his home in Chickerell.

He said: “We could see these orange lights about the size of a football travelling across the sky.

“There were no navigational lights or anything so it couldn’t have been an aircraft or anything like that.

“They were about a quarter of a mile high and travelling too fast for the wind to be blowing them.”

Mr Haigh said that he and his fellow bus passengers could not come up with an explanation for what they were seeing.

He said: “It was quite strange, I have never seen anything like it. It really spooked us.

“Nobody had any idea what it could have been. UFOs are all we can think they are.”

Kevin Smith, 49, spotted the lights from his home in Vanguard Avenue.

He said: “It was about half ten at night and I just looked out the window and saw this orange light moving across the sky and then about another six or seven of them.

“I opened the window and there was no noise.”

Mr Smith added: “I counted 12 lights in all, it was really peculiar. They were all moving right across the sky more slowly than a helicopter or anything like that.

“They seemed to be coming over the Ridgeway and floating over towards Weymouth, they weren’t in any particular formation.

A Portland Coastguard spokesman said they received no reports of any strange sightings, but said Chinese lanterns or meteors could be the explanation.

He said: “We have had numerous calls of sightings of lanterns in the past.

“All the way along the coastline people have parties that include these items.

“You also have to consider meteor showers, which can be mistaken for distress flares.”

A Dorset Police spokesman also said they had not been alerted to anything unusual in the sky over the weekend.

He said: “We found nothing related to UFOs, orange lights, unidentified objects or anything similar.”

Over the years, there have been many reports of UFO sightings above the Ridgeway between Weymouth and Dorchester and above the A35.

Can you solve the mystery? Anyone who can explain the lights is asked to contact the Dorset Echo newsdesk on 01305 830999.