11 June 2008-THE 1985 sighting occured in the sky over Shoreditch

TOP-SECRET UFO dossiers from the Government's very own X-Files have revealed how an Islington resident's close encounter with the third kind has stayed buried for more than 20 years.

Hidden files documenting every UFO sighting in Britain from 1978 to 2002 were released by the Ministry of Defence last month - and an extra terrestrial incident in the skies above Finsbury might have left one Islington man murmuring "EC1 - phone home" in disbelief.

At 10.30am on September 29, 1985, a physics lab technician from Highbury saw "a long thin silver/white object with two fins at the back" hovering 500 yards away above Shoreditch Church.

The man - whose details have been kept secret to protect his identity - reported seeing the mysterious craft "moving very fast towards the City" in "bright sunlight". The sighting lasted for 10 minutes and was backed up by a second witness from Hornsey.

The Highbury resident was so spooked he reported the incident to the MOD's Air Force Operations at 6.30pm that night - but the details were stamped Top Secret and have remained unearthed until now.

A similar sighting of a "very bright object" made of "a smooth, highly-polished metal" hovering above Regent's Park had been reported just nine days earlier.

Paul Southcott, of New North Road, Islington, a member of the UFO Supernatural Study Group, said: "It all happens at once.

"In the mid-90s we had about 80 reports of all sorts of different types of craft within the space of a month from Hackney and Islington. I'm surprised there's only one reported [in the files].

"They're probably sitting on hundreds but you only get what they want you to hear - there's no such thing as freedom of information."

He added: "You get what we call 'UFO fright'. People feel stupid talking about it to people like me. They could have been living with this for 10 years but then something like this comes out and people come out of the woodwork."

Have you seen a UFO? Did you witness the Shoreditch and Finsbury sighting? Call the Gazette newsdesk on 020 8342 5777 or e-mail nlnews@archant.co.uk.

source & references: