Reports of “strange lights in the sky”, “silver tennis ball-shaped” craft and “a spinning white and blue disc” are amongst UFO reports from across the district released by the Ministry of Defence this week.

Flashing lights, lightening-quick craft, beams of light and, in some cases, eerie objects that followed startled onlookers are recorded in Ministry of Defence (MOD) documents.

A Loughton resident called Scotland Yard in late September 1993, saying they had witnessed a “large red and green star shaped object” floating over the town.

In March 1996, a terrified Chigwell man reported a glowing disc in the sky which “turned from white to blue” as he drove through the area.

The man said the object, which he estimated was 1000-2000 ft in the air, hovered then quickly disappeared into the clouds.

He told the MOD he was convinced it was an alien aircraft and not an airship.

The same “white to blue” disc was seen a few months later in July 1996 by a Abridge man, who claimed it was the second time he had seen the “astral being”.

A Chigwell woman complained that she and her family had been harassed by a “silver tennis ball” shaped craft, which followed them for over an hour in 1993.

Simon Brody, of Manor Road, Loughton, said: "I'm not surprised that there have been so many sightings.

"It was broad daylight, a sunny day and I was standing in my back garden and saw this cigar-shaped object high up in the sky.

"It was about the size of a bus. I was ribbed about this at the time, but I am sure of what I saw."

Other sitings included a white light in Chigwell, a cylindrical light with blue shooting from the top and an orange star with two flashng gold lights, both spotted in Waltham Abbey.

Many sightings were dismissed by MOD as satellites or weather balloons,

An MOD operative wrote in his report that reported sightings had increased when the Will Smith film “Men in Black” was released in 1996.