Spectacular UFO over Norway

Residents in northern Norway are utterly baffled by a bizarre and dazzling UFO which flashed over and completely illuminated the night sky. An eye witness said:

The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to twelve minutes before disappearing completely...like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it...a shooting star that spun around and around.

The sighting appears to be completely unrelated to the aurora borealis and the northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena which can often be seen in Scandinavia. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with phone calls.

Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, witnessed the phenomenon while he walked his daughter Amalie to school. He told VG Nett:

It spun and exploded in the sky. We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic. It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens. It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.

Astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights:

My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long. It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.

Air traffic control in Tromsō said the sighting lasted "far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon". Norwegian defence spokesman Jon Espen Lien said the lights were probably from a Russian missile test. He claimed that it was normal for Russia to use the White and the Barents Seas for testing. Tromsō Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed with the missile theory, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel. However, Russia denied conducting missile tests in the area. A Moscow news organization quoted the Russian Navy as denying any testing in the White Sea area. Normally, Norway would have been informed of missile launches, according to diplomatic agreements.