MYSTERY surrounds unidentified flaming objects which Borehamwood residents claim to have spotted in the night sky in the past two months.

On September 6, Khristian Rawlings was shocked to see two large balls of fire, the size and height of a large aeroplane, whizzing across the sky as he stood on the balcony of his home in Howard Drive.

A month later, on November 5, Lisa Talbot saw a brightly burning flying object, also travelling at the height of a plane, as she left a fireworks display at the town's Meadow Park.

Father-of-one Mr Rawlings, 24, said: "They came across at around 9.15pm. They were orange, and the only way I could describe them is as a bubble with a fireball in the middle. They were very bright, going at some speed, and travelling towards London.

"They were very small at first and I thought they were a blip on my glasses but they got bigger and I really thought something was amiss. It was a bit creepy.

"I was scared to death. I told my girlfriend to get the baby, but she told me to calm down and not go crazy."

Mr Rawlings believes the peculiar sight could have been Russian spy planes or meteors.

Miss Talbot, 37, spotted the other mysterious object, also travelling towards London, as she was returning to her Farriers Way home with her nine-year-old daughter.

She said: "It was like a flame going though the sky and the ball was turning around and around, glowing orange. The fireworks had finished and it couldn't have been a firework, it was burning for too long. Everybody stopped and stared at the object. It looked like a meteor.

"I immediately called my mother who had walked the opposite way to me, up Shenley Road towards the old Holmshill School site. She too had seen the object along with the crowd following her the same way. Everybody was totally dumbfounded by what it could have been.

"I'll be keeping an eye out on December 5, to see if they come back."

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said police had received no reports of unidentified flaming objects.