A UFO sighting has been reported in Sussex.
The “bright orange orb” was allegedly spotted hovering in the night sky in Bognor Regis on April 2 by a member of the public and has since been reported to the National UFO Reporting Center, an organisation which records sightings.
The unnamed resident who reported the sighting said the object had appeared at approximately 10pm and remained for around 40 seconds.
They said the object looked like a bright orange orb that remained static and lit up the surrounding clouds.
The resident added that the orb appeared to be around 45 degrees above the horizon and disappeared, before reappearing briefly and then vanishing.
Left to right: The object appears on camera, then vanishes, before briefly appearing again (Image: The National UFO Reporting Centre)
UFO sightings in the UK are relatively common, with more than 1,500 reported in the UK between 2020 and 2023, according to data from UFO Identified.
UFO is an abbreviation for an unidentified flying object, described as any object or phenomenon seen in the sky which cannot be identified or explained.
Most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, despite often being linked to extra-terrestrial activity.
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The Ministry of Defence previously gathered data on UFO sightings but stopped in 2009 after concluding the practice produced no valuable defence output and wasted resources.
Government data shows that a separate UFO was reported in Bognor Regis on June 2, 1997, in which a 100 foot object described as a “solid round ball” was allegedly spotted changing colour from red to black and omitting a beam of light.
Figures from 2023 show that six UFO sightings were reported in Sussex, including in Rye, Hastings, Eastbourne, Worthing and Hassocks.
More recently, a man from Hove claimed to have filmed a UFO on his phone in January last year.