ALIENS may already be among us after an eerie revolving light was spotted hovering over Stroud and Chalford on Saturday.

Several eyewitnesses saw the unworldly glow move in a vaguely circular motion around the clouds at around 11pm - and are convinced it was not a helicopter or spotlight.

Stroud shop owner Emma Hannaway, 30, saw the lights over Chalford around 11pm.

"It was just like a spotlight from a club or helicopter but there was no beam," she said.

"It was a kind of smoky green and it was moving in a circle, but really erratically.

"My friend wouldn't let me leave the car because she thought I was going to be sucked up."

Prunella Walker, 20, from Rodborough, saw the light above Stroud.

She said: "It was a white light. It looked like a strong torch or a spotlight but there was no beam. It looked like it was searching for something."

Another eyewitness told the SNJ he had spotted the mysterious light above Stroud police station at around 11.10pm.

"I was just taking the bins out and I saw a white light just shining on the bottom of the clouds," he said.

"It was mechanical in the way it kept to the same path but it wasn't moving in a true circle."

Matt Ford, spokesman for Gloucestershire police, said there had been three reports from the Stroud area of an unexplained light in the sky on Saturday night.

But he added: "There is no evidence to suggest that it was Martians."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said there were no military aircraft flying over the Five Valleys at the time.

She said: "There were no exercises in that area over the weekend and we haven't had any reports of anything that has compromised national security."