SPINNING discs, gigantic sky snakes and pulsating lights above the M56 - these are Cheshire’s spookiest UFO sightings.

All eyes were on Area 51 last weekend, the United States Air Force military testing ground located in the deserts of Nevada.

Conspiracy theorists say the site is home to wreckage from downed alien spaceships - with a plan to ‘storm’ the military base attracting throngs of visitors to the area.

But you don’t need to visit Area 51 to find UFO sightings - Cheshire seems to be a hotbed.

According to UK-UFO.co.uk - a website that logs sightings - there have been 417 UFOs spotted above Cheshire since 2008, twice as many as Derbyshire, with 222, and Merseyside’s 251.

And now Runcorn's Inflata Nation has compiled a list of the strangest ever sightings as they prepare to launch an ‘Alien Takeover’ event at their indoor inflatable theme park during the October half term.

Inflata Nation founder Matt Ball says: “The M56 can be a scary place at the best of times, and it’s known as something of an accident blackspot.

“And the next time you’re stuck in traffic, you might want to glance upwards - because plenty of people have seen strange lights in the sky above this motorway.”

The following sightings took place between 1997 and 2009, and were all reported to the Ministry of Defence.

Northwich, May 2009: 'Four big lights in a line formation. Two dropped down and the other two moved off quickly into the distance.'

Winsford, May 2009: 'An orange light travelling from the south. It was followed by two more orange lights on the same path, then five more and then two more. They made no noise but were at the height of a helicopter.'

Knutsford, October 2000: 'Triangular shaped aircraft. Light on each point of the triangle. Large fluorescent tube - the full length of the trailing edge.'

Knutsford, January 1998: 'One small, kite-sized, leaf-shaped object. Was bright red in colour. Moved very fast.'

Mottram, August 1998: 'One to four bright triangular objects, that then changed to a round shape. They were all white. Were there for one hour.'

 

Chelford, January 1997: 'One object, 50 metres across. Was round and dark, with white incandescent lights around it. With two very bright, red lights beneath it.'

One of the newer sightings listed on the website, in Middlewich in June 2017, details a 'strange object' shaped like a white ring, which 'shrank/morphed' into a ball and disappeared.