HUNDREDS of people spotted an unidentified object that hurtled through the sky.

Blackburn Police were swamped with calls, as was the Air Traffic Control at Preston, but they were unable to tell the callers what they had seen.

It was by a strange coincidence that Roy Winstanley, of Westwood Road, Blackburn, saw the object, said by experts to be a meteorite.

He was driving along Blackamoor Road towards Lower Darwen when he had to stop to fill up the car radiator.

Mr Westwood said: "I looked up into the sky and saw the object in the distance, south, south east, at an elevation of about five degrees.

"It was very dull red and at that stage I had no idea what it was.

"It made fantastic speed as it came through 30 degrees of arc, becoming brighter and brighter. "

Cllr Joe Bolton, who was sitting in an armchair at his home in Hillcrest Road, also saw the object flying over Feniscliffe.

He added: "I was sitting in the dark and when I saw it light up the sky in front of me.

"It went right across the skyline roughly east to west, and was showing both green and white lights. "