ARTIST Glynis Dray captured the moment when a celestial visitor lit up the skies over Worcestershire on Wednesday evening.

The fireball shot over England and Wales at about 9.45pm, and people took to social media sites to report the phenomenon, with sightings also recorded in Cornwall, Hampshire, Lancashire and South Wales.

Experts believe the meteor might have formed from debris from Halley’s Comet.

Ms Dray, who lives in Lime Tree Avenue, Malvern Wells, was out near the centre of Malvern when she saw it crossing the sky directly overhead heading in a north-west direction.

She said: “I looked towards the hills and saw an amazing sight, something like a comet with a long white tail.

“It was like a massive firework with a bright white head on it followed by an amazingly bright turquoise-green and vivid pink ragged fiery ball with a flat black irregular object in it.” As soon as she returned home, Ms Dray produced a painting of what she had seen. She said: “The whole thing was a lot brighter than I can paint it, the colours were electric and vibrant and the tail was crystal white like a vapour trail and about 20 times longer than the head at a guess.”

Bruce Thomas, of Corbett Street, Droitwich, said: “It was a very bright green light that flashed across the sky. My first thought was it was a rocket or something. I have seen shooting stars but never one as bright as that.”