The 34-year-old, who has asked not to be named, says he was driving back from work late on Tuesday night when he spotted the UFO.

"It was incrediably weird, I have never seen anything like this before and I often travel along the East Lancs," he said.

"I was approaching the lights near the Waterside pub in Carr Mill at about 11.30pm when I saw this round object in the sky. It was certainly too low to be an aeroplane and was moving in quite an erratic fashion.

"I was totally gobsmacked. I pulled off the East Lancs and into the pub car park and walked out to get a better look. It just stayed where it was then started moving slowly towards the Laffack area."

The man, who lives in Haydock with his wife and two young children, managed to take a blurry picture of the object on his mobile phone.

"Obviously the quality is not too good so I suppose it doesn't really prove anything definitively. I showed it to my wife and she was a bit taken aback because I'm not really into things like this. I wouldn't consider myself a believer in anything other worldly but this has made me reconsider the way I look at the world."

* Have you spotted anything mysterious over St Helens skies? Contact our newsroom on 01744 611011 or by emailing sthelens.reporter@lancspublications.co.uk