By Stefan Morkis

OCCUPANTS OF interplanetary craft may have called at Tayside and Fife dozens of times since 1998, according to new figures released by the Ministry of Defence.

There have been 29 sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the skies above Fife in the past nine years, with the Levenmouth and Glenrothes areas proving a particular draw for little green men.

Conversely, Dundee appears to be of far less interest to extra-terrestrials, as the city has had just five sightings of UFOs in the same period.

There have been slightly more —six—UFOs reported in Perth and Kinross but a paltry two in Angus.

The ministry of Defence released details of the hundreds of UFO sightings reported to them since 1998 after being inundated with Freedom of Information requests on the subject.

Despite scores of sightings, the MoD say there is not enough proof to suggest any are evidence of genuine alien visitors but they do investigate certain sightings.

A spokeswoman added, “The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity. If required, sighting reports are examined with the assistance of the department’s air defence experts.

“Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting.”

Although most UFO sightings are just described as strange lights in the sky, some people claim to have seen far more obvious evidence of alien incursions.

In 2000, a Carlisle resident reported “Lucifer-like objects” seen everyday, which held people in their homes. The caller described them as a “nuisance”.

Three years later, a Wigan man reported seeing 17 V-shaped craft piloted by little green aliens with cream-coloured bellies.

The most recent UFO sightings here were in September 2005, when bright white lights moving in circles were seen in Lochgelly and Glenrothes, and Crieff in Perth and Kinross. Two months later a “black triangular” object was seen above Dunfermline.

But it’s been five years since any UFOs were reported above Dundee. At midnight on August 26, 2002, someone reported seeing red and white light through their curtains before a solid red beam appeared outside their window for 5-10 seconds.

Robert Law, arts and heritage officer at Dundee’s Mills Observatory, said that “alien bodies” in the sky usually have more prosaic explanations. “We get quite a lot of calls, in fact we had one last week, but 95% of UFO cases can be easily explained,” he said.

“They can be down to things like planets being visible in the sky, as Jupiter is just now, or Venus, which is the closest planet to Earth and can be very bright.”

Mr Law added that one object regularly spotted in the night sky definitely has its roots on the Earth.

“The International Space Station is now the third brightest object in the sky because it keeps getting added to. It moves across the sky and people see it and sometimes think we’re being invaded,” he said.

He added that anyone who sees a UFO can contact the observatory and they have a computer programme which will be able to show a picture of the sky when the sighting occurred, which can often explain the UFO.