Anthony CarrollThe release of new Ministry of Defence documents detailing UFO sightings from 1994 to 2000 has revealed how a Norfolk radar base detected an unexplained blip - only to find it was a church spire.Anthony Carroll

The release of new Ministry of Defence documents detailing UFO sightings from 1994 to 2000 has revealed how a Norfolk radar base detected an unexplained blip - only to find it was a church spire.

But as the release of the UFO files show there was no need for the air defence airman at RAF Neatishead, at Neatishead, near Stalham to panic when they detected the blip on October 5, 1996.

For according to a MOD review the unexplained blip was not from Mars but was just the spire of St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire

The report, which is one of hundreds of UFO reports from 1994 to 2000 released yesterday said: 'The church spire is known in aviation circles as the 'Boston Stump' and appears occasionally on some radars in certain radar propagation conditions.'

However, as RAF Neatishead was monitoring the Boston Stump, a series of bright multi-coloured lights were seen at the same time by police in Boston and Skegness and by a ship in the Wash.

The once confidential report states: 'The lights in the Wash area were observed from three separate locations high above the horizon and in the same general direction, but without corroborating radar data.

'No associated air vehicle was detected by civil or military radars. This suggests a distant celestial source.'