The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Journal de Montreuil, Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais, France, page 3, on October 24, 1954.
Monday, October 18, at 8:45 p.m., Mr. Jean Gambier, police officer (sworn) in Hesdin, was on rue Farré, when his attention was drawn to a blaze of the sky, northern direction, above the Hesdin forest. The luminous craft, which had an elongated shape seemed - according to the witnesses who came to join Mr. Gambier - to descend from the sky; its upper part was bright red, its center was bright white, and the lower part left behind a shower of stars and luminous streaks. The phenomenon lasted about half a minute and the whole sky was illuminated. The craft then took height again, vertically, and disappeared at a dizzying speed, leaving behind a trail of fire, similar, Mr. Gambier told us, to a firework rocket...?
Several residents of Huby-St-Leu also witnessed this phenomenon, and, if this information had not been communicated to us by a sworn official, we would have hesitated to insert it.
But the fact is there... just like other facts of the same kind... inexplicable... at least for us.
But let's not anticipate.
R. B.
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We learn that this luminous phenomenon was seen in Etaples, at exactly the same hour and by several people.