Similar to a situation in 2007, a Chinese lantern seems to be the culprit behind the riddle.

The Mail last week reported schoolgirl Georgia Cook's sighting of a strange yellow light moving in the night sky above Little Bowden.

The 12-year-old Welland Park College pupil and her dad Peter witnessed the object moving silently above their home in Petworth Drive, Little Bowden, at about 9.50pm on Thursday, January 29.

However Mail reader Di Potter thinks a Chinese lantern set off from the back garden of her home in Kettering Road could be responsible for the mystery.

Mrs Potter and her family launched the lantern at about 9pm that night to celebrate her husband Philip's birthday.

She said: "We set it off from the garden and it shot up. They're lovely things. We watched it go over Kettering Road, slowly getting smaller and smaller for about ten minutes.

"It's funny because at the time we were saying 'I bet someone sees it and tells the Harborough Mail that they've seen a UFO'. So it was so funny when we read it in the paper."

The three-foot tall lanterns work like small hot-air balloons with a wick providing heat to get them airborne.

They were first used for communication in China thousands of years ago but have become popular in Britain in recent years as a safe alternative to fireworks at parties and festivals.

Chinese lanterns were behind another UFO sighting over East Farndon in February 2007, after six set off during a birthday party in the back garden of a home in Lubenham Hill prompted dozens of readers to contact the Mail.