Masses of mysterious red lights have sparked another UFO riddle.

More than 60 of the glowing orbs were spotted throbbing and hovering above Uckfield on Saturday night.

Resident Jamie Smith, 20, from London Road, said he "thought the town was about to be invaded by aliens".

He said: "It was like something out of Space Invaders.

"My dad said to come out into the garden and what I saw was the amazing thing I've ever seen.

"There were at least 60 of these lights right above us, all in close formation. There was no way they were planes or anything like that.

"Then they moved off and just two remained. Then they too totally disappeared."

Mr Smith said the lights hovered for around five minutes before zooming off and he was by no means the only person to spot the lights.

Stephanie Gibb, also spotted them above her home in Uckfield. She said: "Me, my mum and my sister saw them as well it was so creepy but it was also brilliant.

"I couldn't believe it. It was so amazing."

Ryan Jackson, also from Uckfield said: "I walked out of my friends house and saw them. I didn't know what they were. My friends said that it was helicopter but there was no sound.

"I then realised that more kept flying over into Uckfield."

It is the latest in a series of UFO sightings reported by Argus readers. Numerous sightings have been reported, including over Brighton, Chichester and large parts of East Sussex in the last few years.

Recently published Ministry of Defence records show that between 1998 and 2006 there were 52 reports of UFOs flying over Sussex.

Each year more than 100 UFO sightings are reported to the MoD, which is required to investigate every sighting in order to establish whether or not the UKís air space has been compromised.

An MoD spokesman told The Argus: "The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.

"If required, sighting reports are examined with the assistance of the departmentís air defence experts.

"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported."

Curiously the official records show that similar sightings to the one made over Uckfield were also made above the town five years ago.

An object with "red and green flashing lights" was spotted by people in May 2002.

However not all reports of UFOs turn out to be little green men.

Hundreds of people jammed emergency services switchboards last December saying they could see UFOs hovering over the sea at Hove.

However it turned out to be Chinese lanterns drifting out from the shore.