IT WAS like something out of a 1950s science fiction movie. A villager rushed into the local pub and shouted: 'Come and have a look at this.'

Drinkers rushed outside, and stood open-mouthed as a circular metallic disc hovered in the sky.

This was the scene in Avebury at the weekend, when what appeared to be a flying saucer came from nowhere, and flew over the Neolithic stone circle. Motorists pulled over to catch a glimpse of the object, which was 40ft in diameter and appeared to be slowly rotating.

Even sceptics were forced to admit that they were baffled by the saucer, which appeared in the sky at around 8.30pm on Saturday.

But now the X-Files type mystery has been solved by Winterborne Monkton resident John Pearce.

UFO spotters will be dismayed to learn that the object was not being flown by little green men, but by a pair of pranksters in a disguised microlight.

John, 21, tracked the object for half-a-mile in his truck, and watched it land in a field off the A4 Calne to Avebury road.

He said: "I saw it in a field. There were two men dismantling it and loading it into a white van.

"I asked them what they were doing, and they told me they couldn't say because it was top secret.

"They seemed worried, as if they wanted to get it packed away before anyone saw them."

John said it looked just like a classic flying saucer.

He said: "We were all standing outside the pub watching it.

"I thought my eyesight was playing up. I had never seen anything like it.

"The only thing that made me think it was fake was that it was wobbling a bit, and making a humming sound, like a microlight.

"I couldn't see what it was made of, but it looked pretty solid."

One of those taken in by the prank was Shaun Roe, an English teacher from London who was enjoying a weekend break in Avebury.

Shaun, 34, who took a photograph of the object, said: "It was about a mile away from us, and came from the West Overton direction.

"It was silver with one white light and was spinning slowly emitting a high pitched sound."

UFO enthusiast John Hanson, 57, who is investigating sightings in the Swindon area, was not surprised by the prank.

He said: "It doesn't surprise me at all, some people get a kick out of winding people up.

"There was a similar prank in Wiltshire around 10 years ago."

Wiltshire is a hotspot for numerous sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects in recent years. Many objects have been seen over ancient stone circles, such as Avebury and Stonehenge. And Warminster was at the centre of sightings in Britain in 1965 when thousands of visitors arrived there to look for what was known as The Thing.

Were you the pranksters responsible for the stunt? Call Tamash Lal at the Evening Advertiser on 528144.