By Jolene Hill

jolene.hill@essnmedia.co.uk

A mysterious object spotted sailing across the sunny skies of Purley has left residents and a UFO expert scratching their heads.

The blurry entity was snapped by John Barrett, 48, as he was walking across Higher Drive Recreation Ground at about 1.25pm last Friday.

His wife Claire, 42, then sent the picture to the Advertiser - click on the link to the right to view a larger version.

She said: "My husband was taking a walk and looked up at the trees covered in frost from the ice and snow lately, then spotted something moving steadily in the sky.

"It basically kept moving and eventually disappeared in the distance and faded away."

The Advertiser sent the picture to UFO investigator Nick Pope to analyse.

Mr Pope used to run the British Government's UFO project at the Ministry of Defence and was initially a UFO sceptic.

As well as mysterious flying objects, he has also investigated alien abductions, crop circles and ghosts

When he saw the photo taken over Purley, he said the black mark in the bottom left corner was most likely a blemish on the film.

But he was baffled by the object in the top right hand corner of the snap.

"This is bizarre. Often with UFO photos, you hear that someone didn't see anything at the time and only noticed something odd when they saw the picture.

"This suggests a fault with the camera. But when someone sees something at the time and captures it on film, this is much more interesting.

"I was going to suggest the object in the top right hand corner was lens flare, but if the witness saw something moving at the time, this is unlikely to be the cause. It's a genuinely intriguing shot.

"There have been numerous UFO sightings over the UK recently including the incident where a UFO apparently collided with a wind turbine in Lincolnshire, so maybe the witness has captured an intriguing piece of evidence."

The latest sightings follow reports of a UFO above the Purley Tesco, last August.

Sid O'Driscoll spotted the green and white light, moving quite fast, then stopping.

And Carrie Negri, 23, of Chichester Road, East Croydon, watched seven bright orange missile-shaped lights travelling slowly in formation across the night sky a month later.