Conspiracy theorists have claimed the authorities in the US are working in conjunction with space agency NASA and media organisations to create panic, before staging an alien invasion to get a tighter grip on the public.

UFO hunters state that the theory began with a New York Times article last year which revealed the existence of a $22 million Pentagon program that investigates UFOs.

Around the same time, scientists announced a cigar-shaped asteroid had entered our solar system – the first time an interstellar object had been detected in our galactic neighbourhood.

Retired physician Steven Greer: “Strictly speaking, the militarists and war-mongers, itching to ‘kick some alien butt’ as it was said in the movie Independence Day, may actually only want a pretext to justify their existence and get the world to eventually spend huge sums of money on a perceived if contrived threat from space.”