UFOs over Archway - is the mystery solved?

Now Camden Council has admitted that sky lanterns were launched at a private gathering in Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill - just a few hundred metres away.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "There was a private event at Waterlow Park that evening. It was a small family memorial service. They did set off lanterns, but we weren't aware that they were going to do that."

"Sky lanterns" or "UFO balloons" are mini hot air balloons that can be bought online for use at parties. They cost as little as £9.99 for a packet of six and can rise as high as 1,000 metres.

Reporter Charlotte Tamvakis tries to unravel the mystery of the 'Archway lights'

WHILE no one is in any doubt something happened in the sky above Archway last Thursday, experts are at odds over what caused the spooky sight.

The truth is out there - somewhere - and my search started with the account of eyewitness, James Zafar.

He said: "When I called 999 there was a big silence and then he came back on the phone and said we've tracked it by radar. Then he said, 'you are real really lucky, you've just seen a meteor or shooting star.'

"They definitely mentioned the radar and that leads me to think they know all about this."

But police would only confirm that they received a number of calls about the lights and that there was reference to radar and a meteor on their records. They could not say where this information came from.

And the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said it had had no reports of any "security incidents" - adding: "Unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom from an external source, and to date no 'UFO' report has revealed such evidence, MOD does not attempt to identify the precise nature of each reported sighting."

Time to speak to someone who knows all about what happens in the sky at night.

I contacted the Royal Astronomical Society - but it ruled out a cosmological explanation.

Press officer Peter Bond said: "It doesn't sound like aurora. Auroras are curtains of light and meteors last a few seconds and they leave a bright tail around them when they burn up. They won't last for 10 minutes.

"And it certainly couldn't be a comet either because comets don't move because they are so far away. They move position from night to night."

His conclusion was that the lights must be military aircraft or some sort of weather balloons.

Then a spokesman for the Meteorological Office ruled out weather balloons - along with any weather-related explanation.

He explained: "It's unlikely that it could have been anything to do with the weather. It was a pretty clear evening the whole night on Thursday. There were no storms or anything like that."

And astronomer and self proclaimed "UFO sceptic" Ian Ridpath also dismissed any astronomical or climatic explanations.

He believes the phenomenon was caused by "sky lanterns" or "UFO balloons" - one-off miniature hot air balloons that can be ordered online for use at parties.

Mr Ridpath said: "These things are always being reported. This very probably is the most likely explanation. What surprises me is that someone hasn't come along and said this is what they are."

And with Chinese New Year just around the corner, this certainly seems like a possible answer.

But witnesses and UFO researchers disagree.

Contact International UFO Research, based in Oxford, aims to "solve the enigma of UFOs - whether fact or fiction".

A spokesman said: "I'm not convinced by the argument. I asked witnesses if they thought there was a possibility it was lanterns and they said no."

He added: "What we try to do is get an explanation and at the moment we are still banging our heads against the wall."

Some people have even suggested the lights could be radio masts on top of Archway Tower.

But eyewitness Mr Zafar said: "They moved and then they stopped and then they moved again. They were under control. I totally disagree. I think someone is trying to dismiss the story."

And Mr Cull added: "I don't buy the balloon thing. When I first saw it, it was stationary and then it was moving above the hospital and then it moved towards the south."

For eyewitnesses of Thursday's extraordinary events at least, it seems the truth is still out there.