TODAY is National Alien Day and, according to research by YouGov, one in two people are believers.

There have been numerous sightings in and around Redditch and Bromsgrove over the years, including dozens of residents in Bromsgrove saying the whole sky light up, the lights in their home flickered on and off, their television lost signal and their electrical appliances played up on a night in May 2016.

Residents living in the B61 area also experienced a power cut around the same time.

Retired West Midlands Police detective John Hanson, from Alvechurch, has spoken to the Advertiser about his 20-year fascination with UFOs after colleagues saw a ‘spaceship’ in Birmingham.

With the help of friend Dawn Holloway, Mr Hanson then began compiling research and witness accounts, before publishing Haunted Skies, a day-by-day account of UFO activity in the UK since the 1940s.

Margaret Webb, a member of Worcestershire-based UFO group Sky Scan, believed she saw a UFO in her garden in 1974, while Worcester resident Trevor Jones claims to have seen a spaceship fly over his roof in 1975.

More than 20 years before, in 1952, two witnesses claimed to see a space ship “emitting a weird green phosphorescent glow” at 2,500 feet, flying at an estimated 600mph over the Malvern Hills.

According to an FOI request, between 2013 and 2017, West Mercia Police has only received four emergency calls regarding UFO sightings.

An object with lights and flames, flying low before landing in a tree, a UFO moving erratically in the sky with lights on and doing 90-degree turns and a craft emitting a “loud screaming noise” were all reported to police.

Have you ever seen a UFO? Do you believe in aliens? Let us know by emailing redditcheditorial@midlands.newsquest.co.uk.