AN Atherton man's mid-afternoon gardening session was interrupted by a UFO.

Arthur Westwood was pottering about in his garden at his Devonshire Road in Hag Fold when he says he suddenly noticed a strange object in the sky.

The 62-year-old said: "I couldn't fail to see it, it was so bright. It was way up. It was a lovely day and there was not much cloud."

Arthur went into the house, told his wife, Joyce, and grabbed his binoculars.

He said: "It was still there when I went back outside. If it had been a plane it would already have gone out of sight."

Looking through the binoculars, Arthur said the "object" appeared to be a round, shining, white light when the sun's rays were upon it, but without reflection from the sun, it appeared to have a round shape and a blue colour."

Arthur claims the mystery aircraft was hovering in Atherton skies for about half an hour, flying higher than the clouds and initially travelling from west to east, before doing a sharp-right angle turn and zooming in a northerly direction.

He said: "I would like to know if anybody else saw it. It must have been visible for miles around. Maybe if you saw it from a different angle you could see what it was. It's only a UFO until it is identified."

Now he is remaining open minded about the possibility of aliens hovering above the Hag Fold estate on Tuesday, April 23.

He says: "Some people find the idea of aliens frightening but I think what would be scary is, if ours was the only planet that was inhabited."

His wife Joyce, aged 75, refused to go out and look at the UFO saying: "I am very sceptical. UFO's don't trouble me at all."