The police officer said he was blinded by bright lights

Alan Godfry, a former PC with West Yorkshire Police remains convinced he may have been abducted by aliens on the 36th anniversary of the shocking series of events.

Mr Godfrey was on patrol in Todmorden in the early hours of November 28 1980, when he insists a large UFO spotted him while he was on a search for missing cattle.

The officer was in Burnley Road on the outskirts of the town looking for the farm animals that were reported missing and about to give up when he claims to have seen

what he thought was a bus approaching from a few hundred metres away.

But as he got nearer, he realised it was not the 5am commuter bus, but, instead, "a large mass".

He said at the time: "It was a fuzzy oval that rotated at such speed and hovered so low over the road that it was causing the bushes by the side to shake."

He claims he stopped to sketch the "UFO" on his note pad, but was overcome by a burst of light.