A mysterious spiral has illuminated skies across the county this evening and left several Kent residents starstruck.

Reports of the bright object have come in from Canterbury, Hythe and Tunbridge Wells.

It is believed to have been caused by debris from a launch of a SpaceX rocket.

Onlookers say they saw beams of light shortly after 8pm before the spiral emerged and began spinning across the sky.

It is understood to be launch fuel from Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in Cape Canaveral in Florida just a few hours ago.

Andrew Bennett says he has "never seen anything like it before".

The Stelling Minnis resident told KentOnline: "I was letting the dogs out for a wee in my garden and I had a torch which I was flashing to get my wife's attention.

"It lasted about five minutes and in the meantime I phoned my mate Simon who lives about half an hour away in Wingham and he said he saw it as well.

"I thought the aliens were here as it really was amazing.

"We think it was something fuelled by rockets having just looked online.

"It just went so quickly and I've never seen anything like it before.

"This is a weird thing to see but amazing."

Meanwhile, Tunbridge Wells' David Friend wrote on X: "What in the world of ET has just flown over Tunbridge Wells?

"Never seen anything like it creeping across the sky."

Others claim they also spotted the mysterious spiral in the Cotswolds, Sheffield and Oxfordshire, with residents in Germany also saying they saw the strange lights.