Did aliens land out of the blue?
‘UFO INVASION’ IS ACTUALLY LIGHTS FROM LASER-GUIDED TRAIN
A MYSTERIOUS blue light was seen in the sky over Greater Manchester on Monday evening.
The ‘pulsating’ glare was reported by hundreds of people in Ashtonunder-Lyne, Droylsden, Stalybridge and Uppermill at around 11pm.
Social media sites were flooded with images and videos of the glow.
Many suggested the lights were part of the Pride Festival celebrations in Manchester city centre on Monday evening.
Others thought it could be coming from a drone, a larger aircraft – or even a spaceship!
But there appears to be a more sensible reason for the phenomenon.
Dozens of Facebook users said the lights looked similar to a specialist railwork repairs train, which was seen flashing blue lights in southern areas of the UK earlier this year. And a spokeswoman from Network Rail confirmed there was a ‘tamping train’ in use in the area on Monday evening. It was being used to carry out works on the railway line between Manchester and Preston. According to Network Rail the tamping train is laser-guided, which is why people could see a blue light in the sky. It was working to pack the track ballast under the railway tracks to make them more durable. One Facebook user who saw the blue light in the sky said: “It was really odd. It was there for a fair few seconds then moved to the left. “I thought it was a plane at first and it was just me being silly. “But then everyone else seemed to say they had seen it too.” Another Twitter user said: “Anyone see the strange purple lights over Tameside earlier? UFO invasion?” Network Rail are carrying out improvement works on the Manchester to Preston line, via Bolton, as part of a multi-million pound project.
A spokesperson for Network Rail said: “We can confirm this was not an unidentified flying object (UFO). It was rather an identified non-flying object (INFO) – namely a railway ballast tamping machine, which uses lasers.”
Anyone see the strange lights over Tameside earlier? UFO invasion Twitter user