They said the 'UFO' over New York was just balloons... so how do they explain the mirror image over El Paso?



It could, of course, just be an amazing coincidence.

First New York was gripped by sightings of UFOs in the sky last week. The fears were quickly debunked by the claim that the 'UFOs' were actually balloons released from a nearby school.

But this weekend lights forming a mirror image of the pattern seen in the sky over New York have been seen in El Paso, Texas - immediately sparking speculation that the little green men have moved down south.

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First New York... now El Paso? Left, what New Yorkers saw in the Big Apple on Wednesday. Right, what Texans saw over El Paso on the weekend



Witnesses in El Paso flooded local police stations and newsrooms with phone calls. Many reported seeing the same sequence of events in the night sky.



First one light appeared to cascade from the heavens, separating into three, each with a tail behind it.



Then they are seen solidifying into three dots forming a triangle - a triangle that was the mirror image of the three 'balloons' in New York.

Next a fourth light appeared, the lights appearing to hover in the air - and then, suddenly, they all went out.

Because it was dark, it seems unlikely that these lights are balloons.



The lights were captured on video and have sparked a frenzy of speculation, especially after a local news station pointed out the simliarity between them and the sightings over New York last week.

The mysterious objects hovered over the West Side of the Big Apple, causing thousands of New Yorkers to wonder what exactly they were seeing.



Mystery: Local witnesses reporting first seeing a single light cascade from the sky

Then, suddenly, the light split in to three parts

The three lights then solidified into three points as they appeared to hover over El Paso

Suddenly a fourth light appeared - and then all four went out. The lights have not yet been explained

Traffic had ground to a halt and pedestrians stopped in their tracks to look skyward at the cluster of dots hovering overhead.

But those objects turned out to be nothing other than wayward party balloons from a school in Mount Vernon. Angela Freeman, headteacher of the Milestone School in Westchester said she was astonished at all the attention her decorations caused: 'It was just a freak thing. Frankly, I'm shocked by it'. The cluster of balloons were apparently inadvertently launched when a parent bought the balloons in for a celebration at the suburban school. 'The kids had an engagement party for a teacher, and a mother brought four dozen balloons, and she's coming through the door. It is very windy in Mount Vernon. Suddenly, 12 of the balloons let loose,' Freeman explained. The truth is up there: Traffic ground to a halt and thousands looked to the skies at the strange object whizzing over Manhattan New Yorkers came to a standstill as they watched the lights in the sky last week As for the lights in El Paso this weekend, speculation is rife on the internet - and no definitive explanation has yet been given. Many have suggested a military explanation. One observer at Headhot wrote: 'They are magnesium flares on parachutes. They are used to light up battlefields. 'A single mortar is launched, then the three flares ignite and drift down on parachutes. Then they burn out and go dark. 'Odds are there was some national guard training going on.' Other users suggested they were a night skydiving team practicing for an airshow.

In New York, the shiny balloons which were meant for language arts teacher Andrea Crapara were released at around 1pm. The first 'UFO' sighting was just thirty minutes later. NYPD revealed that the sightings prompted several 911 calls and brought parts of the Chelsea district to a complete standstill. Mystery: Police and the Federal Aviation Authority were deluged with calls and despite mounting an investigation were unable to ascertain what it was

Veteran UFO spotters had come forward even before the school balloon explanation and were cynical that the object floating in the sky would be unexplained.

Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Washington DC said at the time: 'It had the flavour of a cluster of balloons in my opinion'.

Most people were sceptical that the objects were extra terrestrial life, yet remained transfixed nonetheless.

Witness Daniel Calhoun, 52, said: ‘Common sense says it wasn't a UFO. Common sense says it was a plane or a balloon, but this thing stopped everyone in the street for two blocks.



'Any New Yorker will tell you, that alone is extraordinary.’

Witness Pete Bryant, 32, added: ‘There was no way that thing was a balloon... Light just doesn't reflect off balloons like that.’

Some blog posts linked the sighting to a book published by a retired U.S. Air Force officer which said that October 13, the very day the sighting happened, would witness ‘a massive UFO display over the world's principal cities'.