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The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Alsace, France, on February 14, 1982.
See the case file.
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Fifteen police officers from the Mulhouse central police station and several other witnesses observed yesterday at dawn, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:40 a.m., a "white ball of high intensity, fifteen to twenty times the size of a star" moving in the sky of the city of the Bollwerk [= Mulhouse]. Photos were taken by the police - but without a special filter on the lens - and after development, the phenomena followed with the naked eye did not appear on the film.
So UFO (1) or not UFO?
Some say yes, others think it was just a weather balloon reflecting the first rays of the sun. In our region where several unexplained phenomena of the same type were already observed in recent years and in particular in Kembs where in April 1980 a young woman, Patricia Dziomba had been pursued by a UFO - these new testimonies may be of some importance.
The first witnesses to the phenomena are two guards, one from the 4th section and the other from the canine brigade, who in a police vehicle patrolled the streets of Mulhouse. They had started their shift at 5 a.m.. At 6:30 a.m., being rue Lavoisier, in the Cité, one of the police officers said to the other: "Here, look there is a UFO in the sky". A white ball, very strong, like a neon light and 15 to 20 times bigger than a star, was moving slowly above the city, from Bourtzwiller (in the north) towards Riedisheim (in the south) and at an altitude quite low (from 500 to 800 m). The two guards observed the ball for three to four minutes, before it was hidden by buildings.
By radio, the police then alerted the command room of the central police station, where they went.
At the police station (Coehorn barracks) the patrol again saw the ball which was above them and which was heading this time towards the tower of Europe, still moving at low altitude and slow speed. "The sky was clear, the day was beginning to dawn and we could not confuse it with a star," said one of the witnesses.
In their vehicle, the police decided to follow the ball of light. The latter, which was then above the Tower of Europe, suddenly accelerated and took the direction of the zoo. "We followed it to the Allée des Ecureuils in the Rebberg where other witnesses, people from the neighborhood who were already up, also followed the development of the phenomenon," say the policemen.
Another patrol of four officials, in the police-rescue van, was in Riedisheim around 6:40 a.m. The three guards and the sergeant also saw this white, shiny ball, which seemed to have changed shape, like a drop of oil."
Other witnesses say that after having stared well at the phenomena, they believed to distinguish kinds of antennas, as well as a cloudy trail behind the craft. About twenty police officers and residents met after 7 p.m. in the Rebberg. A plane, which had taken off from Bâle-Mulhouse had just passed some 500 meters from the ball. But it seems that neither the pilot nor the Basel-Mulhouse airport radar control noticed anything. At the same time, the police officers, really intrigued, decided to send for the duty superintendent, Mrs. Soranzo, who also witnessed the phenomenon. One also called the officials of the accident brigade who came to the allée des Ecureuils with a camera. A policeman from the motorcycle brigade also photographed the ball with his personal camera. Two films with different sensitivities. "This ball, it stood out clearly in the clear sky, still dark, and yet there is nothing on the film", notes a police officer.
Around 7 a.m., the "UFO" remained motionless above the zoo, then it moved strangely up and down and from right to left. Until 7:40 a.m. After stopping dead, the ball of light rose sharply straight into the sky and gradually disappeared towards the south, in the direction of Switzerland.
Jean-Marie STOERCKEL
(1) UFO: unidentified flying object.
