West Coast gets UFO fever

Heritage park Shantytown staff Chantelle Cronn, left, Monica Pfeifer, Hazel Large, Amanda Pike, Ian Tibbles, Andrea Forrest and Nathan Lee are prepared for any extraterrestrial visitors.

UFOs are the talk of the West Coast after reports of one man's 'close encounter' at Rutherglen on Tuesday night.

Although no other witnesses have come forward about the sighting; in which Matthew Robert Haisty claims to have come across a UFO parked on the road right outside Shantytown before it took off in a flash of blinding light; David Skelton said today he witnessed strange lights moving about in nearby Taylorville about the same time.

He said he saw strange lights from his window and initially thought a plane was going down. The lights were travelling west, too slow for a meteor but too fast to be a helicopter or plane. They were also too low to be from a shooting star.

The Shantytown UFO incident has created much discussion on-line, with people taking to social networks to voice a range of theories and messages of both support and scepticism.

Many claimed that hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol must be responsible, while others maintained that some things simply could not be explained.

Kelsey Prendergast said on Facebook: "I believe it's true. I've had sightings and I was blown away."

Elizabeth Tones was also supportive: "UFO is an unidentified flying object, doesn't mean green men in spaceships. Sad that people have such nasty things to say about others who see such objects."

Meanwhile, the news has gone global online and has excited alien watchers and UFO websites.

AlteredDimensions.net said: "Greymouth has been a hot spot for UFO activity for at least a decade, with reports from citizens throughout the area describing orange, red and green lights moving through the sky, green spheres travelling along the local hills and metallic discs flying in the area."