WINSTON Churchill ordered a cover up of a reported close encounter between an RAF aircraft and a UFO during the Second World War because it would create "mass panic", according to newly-released files.

The former Woodford MP ordered details of the unexplained incident over the East Coast to be kept secret, according to a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill's bodyguards.

The tale is told in newly declassified Ministry of Defence UFO files put online by the National Archives.

Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the man, from Leicester, wrote to the Government in 1999 trying to find out more about the incident.

The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill exclaimed: "This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one's belief in the church."

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