A REDDITCH resident recently had a close encounter of the blurred kind, while in the town.

John Hanson, who for the last 20 years has dedicated his life to investigating UFO and close encounter sightings, spotted the unidentified object in the sky at 6.55pm on June 10 while at Alvechurch Middle School, off Birmingham Road, looking towards the south direction.

Mr Hanson, who along with partner Dawn Holloway spends his time hunting down information and witness accounts about strange things in the night sky, said: "My attention was caught by something resembling a silver chain dropping through the sky.

"I looked and saw what I took to be a Chinese lantern but it wasn't that. Strange to say the least."

Mr Hanson, a retired police officer who served for a number of years in the CID, added: "A second photo showed nothing at all."

The couple have been collecting every bit of information they find to go toward Haunted Skies, a day-by-day account of UFO activity in the UK since the 1940s.

They have urged anyone who may have witnessed anything extraterrestrial to get in touch by contacting Haunted Skies on facebook, or emailing johndawn1@sky.com.

The Haunted Skies books are available from the couple or via Amazon.com.