A brightly-lit UFO has been spotted on the Gold Coast in Australia.

Chevron Island local, Jack Purcell , caught the red and green flashing 'alien-looking spaceship' on camera hovering above the sea.

"We were all just sitting out the front and my mum pointed to the sky and said 'look at that colourful plane flying over'," Purcell said.

"Then it came to a sudden stop and was just hovering there. So I ran inside and grabbed my video camera."

Purcell said when the police tried to 'call it in' with a police helicopter the unidentified object would turn its lights off and disappear.

"It was really strange. I was quite sceptical of these things but it just blew my mind."

He denies it could be a remote control drone helicopter as some people have suggested on YouTube and said: "I've seen drone choppers and they're not that big whereas this thing was huge.

"It was really high in the sky too, I don't think this one was somebody mucking around.

"I have no idea what it was but my guess I think it's a UFO despite how crazy that might sound."

Gold Coast Police said it was notified about the object but believes it was a radio controlled device.

A spokesman added: "If it was anything larger it would have been picked up by the air control radars."