Aliens could be choosing to wind up their summer holidays with a visit to Woodford Green after a man spotted “little polo lights” in the skies.

Graham Cass, 53, was walking his dog in Broadmead Road at about 10pm when he believes he saw a UFO consisting of lots of little lights “taking off”.

The area is a hot spot for UFO sightings with nine recorded on a national UFO website with one dating back to the 1970s.

Mr Cass said: “It’s definitely the first time I have seen one, I thought it was a ridiculous thing to talk about but the experience has got me thinking a bit more in depth about it all.”

Mr Cass was walking his dog on Tuesday of last week when he saw six or seven lights thousands of feet in the air. “They were like little polo lights moving around randomly, at a constant speed like they were scanning something then they all shot to the centre,” he said. “It was like it was taking off.”

When he saw his neighbour he brought up the unusual sight he had just witnessed.

“He said he also saw the same thing. I’m convinced there was something there. It just had a feeling like there was something there. Maybe I will get over it in time.”

Mr Cass ran through different explanations of what he saw including headlights being reflected onto the clouds or a special event being put on somewhere.

“If that’s a lighting effect I don’t know how they would be achieved and why they would pay for a few seconds,” he said.

The sighting has led Cllr Paul Canal to ponder the prospect of aliens visiting from outer space.

He said: “If I was an alien and I was looking to somewhere to try to land on earth I would go to Woodford, it has some of the best restaurants and the best people. I expect they will invite them in for tea and biscuits and a chat.”

A Redbridge police spokesman said: “We have had no reports of a suspicious light in the skies.”