Residents have spotted what they believe is a police 'spy plane' circling the skies over Bolton.

The aircraft was spotted by Chris Bond, who took this picture at around 4pm yesterday in Great Lever.

He said: "It was flying back and forth for about 10 minutes...I knew it couldn't be a pleasure flight so grabbed my camera."

The Bolton News:

Chris posted a picture in the I Belong to Bolton Facebook group, where it got people talking straight away.

In his post, Chris said he had seen the plane over Bolton's skies for the past three days.

Almost 100 people commented on the photo within the first few hours.

Many suggested it could be a police spy plane, due to the G-POLX markings on the wing.

Kevan Monks suggested it might be "looking for heat spot in houses" in a bid to find drugs farms.

Shane Williams said: "It’s the police spy plane - must be following someone."

One Facebook user said she had spotted the plane in recent days as far away as Garstang, north of Preston.

But according to it's flight path on Monday, the aircraft took off from Yorkshire before doing a figure-eight around Bolton and Lancashire.

In a post last summer on Doncaster and Sheffield Airport's Facebook page, they said the G-POLX P68 was being modified at the airport for the National Police Air Service (NPAS).

NPAS is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.

In February, they were recruiting staff for the service, including a fixed-wing line pilot based out of Doncaster.

It came with a salary of up to £60,000.

Perhaps these were the new pilot's first operational flights. 

- What do you thing? Did you see it?