The latest sighting was above Asquith Avenue in Scarborough and follows several reports of strange orange-coloured lights above Scarborough Castle a few weeks ago.

Tracey Bromage, of Seamer Road, was walking home at about 10pm when she saw the strange and silent lights. She said: "We saw randomly pulsing lights. They were yellowish. We just felt surprised because we thought it was lightning but there was no sound at all.

"They were about roof height or the height of a lamppost. They weren't travelling, just stationary. The nearest comparison we could make was the Northern Lights but in yellow."

She added she did not have a clue what the lights were but they hovered above the houses for about 15 minutes.

Several other witnesses have contacted the Evening News to say they spotted other lights over the area of Scarborough Castle and the North Bay.

The first witness, a woman in her 70s, said she saw the lights which she said were of the warmer colours. "It disappeared into the clouds. I thought I saw it come around again but it seemed to have floated a bit over Robin Hood's Bay."

The second witness, a man in his 20s, said he saw the same lights from Scalby. "They were going towards Whitby. I looked through binoculars at the lights, they were dark in colour and moving quite slowly."

Russ Kellett, a Filey-based UFO investigator, said members of his group were planning to set up cameras which would record round the clock. He said: "There are reports from all over the UK but we seem to have better luck here in North Yorkshire in filming them."

He added there had been reports of an object in York and it seemed very similar to the most recent Scarborough sighting. He said: "This object was just above the roofs and it seems like it could be the same thing.

"The worrying thing is that the size of the object is very similar to the one that we have videoed. That was low down but not as low as this one. We have got to ask the question what is this object doing so low?"