PHOTOGRAPHER Mihály Tomka captured some astonishing pictures of the northern lights over Worcestershire last night.

Meanwhile, another county photographer, Dave Grubb, from Claines, was in Finland to see the spectacular natural phenomenon at its best.

Mr Tomka said: "It was an unbelievable afternoon and night.

"It started with beautiful sunset. I was waiting for the dark sky to photograph the Milky Way.

"I was so surprised when I checked my first picture; it was aurora borealis over our place, Malvern."

Wildlife photographer Mr Grubb took his stunning picture of the aurora in northern Finland at 2am this morning Finnish Local Time (GMT+2).

Posting the picture to the Worcester News Facebook page, he wrote: "2am here in Northern Finland, highest aurora activity for over a year...

"First time for [seeing] the lights.

"Luck again as during the previous two weeks there had been no sightings.
"Aurora was filling the whole sky - a case of where do you look and point the camera.

"It's been mild here with only temperatures of -5 not the usual -20c, due to change this weekend though."

The Met Office said there was a small chance people in the north of Worcestershire may have been able to have seen the lights last night.

However, it appears that despite their best efforts, nobody managed to spot the aurora in the city.

On the Worcester News website, wr4chap wrote: "Was amazed at the bright lights looking North of Warndon Villages, Worcester at 11:40 pm... Then realized it was the glare from the businesses along Cotswold Way/Berkeley Way :("

On the Worcester News Facebook page, there was a similar story with people saying they had no luck with sightings in Worcester, Defford or Droitwich.

Patricia Ann Cartwright wrote: "Nope. Pitch Black here on North Worcs Border."