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The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Courrier Picard, France, page 1, on October 23, 1954.
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MELUN, October 22. -- Numerous witnesses, residents of municipalities in the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Lagny, Moret, Thomery, declared to have seen, at nightfall, a strange phenomenon: an oval shaped object, of yellow orange color, measuring more than 20 meters, at 200 or 400 meters of altitude. Note: the 20 meters would be the real measure of the object and not its size as it appeared to them.
The craft remained motionless for a while and disappeared at breakneck speed.
One of the witnesses, Mr. André L..., weather specialist, who lives in Thomery, estimates that the speed of the craft was of the order of 10,000 km/hour, quite simply.
Mr. L... said: "I am absolutely certain, because I know this question well, that it is neither an airplane nor a sounding balloon."
In Melun itself, several young girls coming out of an evening class, claim to have seen an almost similar craft in the sky which, after having stopped for ten minutes, would have risen very quickly in the sky.
Also, a luminous ball resembling a car headlight appeared six times to two industrialists from Melun who were traveling on the Melun-Rubelles national road. The appearance of this luminous focus would have caused each time a very large flash illuminating the region.
Finally, several riders from a horse racing center in La Rochelle (Seine-et-Marne) [sic], claim to have seen a character run away in the park. "He was strange, they say. He could only be a Martian."
In the Charente-Maritime, on the other hand, a motorist from Cherbonnières was driving on the road to Sousou with his 3-year-old son, when he felt tingling all over his body similar to electric shocks, which increased as his car moved. The child, who felt the same discomfort, began to cry.
Soon the car engine stopped and the headlights went out. At the same time, a bright glow was seen, going from bright red to orange.
Blinded, the motorist could however distinguish a craft stationary in space for a few moments, then this one will disappear soon. Immediately afterwards, the driver was able to restart the engine of his car.
In the department of Isère, in recent days, motorists claim to have seen, in the Morestel region, a mysterious craft which must have landed near this location.
Continued on 2nd page under the title Flying Saucers
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(Continued from 1st page)
However, the next morning, a farmer from a neighboring hamlet noticed that a strange device was in a field. What increased his surprise was that an intermittent light emanated from the device.
It was actually a sounding balloon with its recording devices which included bulbs, whose light would vary, it is said, according to certain temperature conditions.
The farmer shipped the balloon and the devices to the address indicated on the attached sheet, that is to say the Observatoire de Trappes (Seine-et-Oise).
It is probably the luminous "saucer" seen the previous evening by motorists victims of an optical illusion.
Many discs, saucers and flying cigars were seen yesterday in the sky of Italy. Several people saw these craft moving above Milan, while residents of Perugia, Bologna and other localities of the North of the peninsula were also eyewitnesses of these incursions of flying discs or cigars.
The most precise testimony was collected in Naples, where two workers who were in the suburbs of the city, clearly distinguished an apparatus, of circular shape, moving in the sky at 800 meters of altitude, following a northeast direction.
The phenomenon lasted 2 minutes and the two workers were able to specify that the metal carcass of the disc was painted red and that white smoke escaped from it.
Around Kongsvinger, a town about 80 km northeast of Oslo, several people said they saw several luminous objects crisscrossing the sky last night at an extraordinary speed, from west to southeast, disappearing on the horizon after a few minutes,
Some witnesses claim that these fireballs exploded in their course.
According to most observations, it is a giant fireball that ignites on contact with the atmosphere.
