Last week, thousands of homes and businesses across the borough were left in semi-darkness when two primary sub stations lost power for several minutes.

John Szwarc, of Greenside, Euxton, was travelling along Runshaw Lane in his car at the time of the blackout and says he saw two strange objects flying across the sky.

He said: "There were two UFOs. The main one was a huge bright cross which shone with a brilliant silver colour, although my wife thought that it was more a gold colour.

"There was also a small globe or circular object close to it composed of the same uncanny brilliance.

"Both were static in the daylight sky and both disappeared at exactly the same moment. I am aware that electrical power cuts have been associated with UFO activity in the past."

He added: "The cross was very big and very imposing and altogether weird looking.

"It didn't last very long, perhaps just a few seconds before it went, but it was long enough for us to realise that what we were seeing was quite alien to the sky.

"It certainly wasn't space debris or anything like that."

United Utilities confirmed the power cut but said they did not detect any signs of extraterrestrial involvement.

A company spokesman said: "There was a fault on a cable in a sub station. There can be a number of reasons for such a fault but we didn't find any aliens.
"And we have never had any reports of faults being caused by unidentified flying objects."

A spokesperson for the MoD said: "No reports of aliens or UFO sightings have come across my desk but you can be sure we will be on the lookout in future."

The sighting has now been reported to the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), which is based in London, for further investigation.

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