ALIEN communications? UFOs? Top secret military activity? The Echo has been flooded with theories about the mysterious lights over Bournemouth on Thursday night.

But now we can exclusively reveal they were nothing more than Asian-style sky lanterns, released by students celebrating the end of their courses.

Tim Brandwood, 24, was among the 20 revellers from The Arts Institute at Bournemouth who released the lanterns at a party on Bingham Road, Winton.

Eight or so of these 4ft-high, 1.5ft-wide lanterns, which are turned into a miniature hot air balloon by a flame at the bottom, were released around 10pm.

He said: "They were left over from the Fire Festival at Meyrick Park, on May 12, which was a third year arts and events project and we thought we'd let them off to celebrate the last day of term and the last day of our course."

Minutes later people from across the area spotted them and their imaginations ran wild.

The Echo office has been inundated with calls and more than a hundred comments were posted on-line, suggesting everything from a meteor shower to an invasion of the Triffids!

Tim added: "The first I new was when I got a lot of garbled answer phone messages telling me to look at the news and check the Echo website because people thought it was aliens! That was never the intention. It's amazing, and very funny."

He added: "I think it's quite charming that there are so many people in Bournemouth ready to believe in that stuff. We gave Bournemouth a bit of sparkle that night!"