The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Est Républicain, Nancy, France, page 11, on October 17, 1954.
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Paris. -- Reports continue to flood into newspaper editorial offices and gendarmerie stations, bringing new or picturesque details every day about saucers, cigars, and other flying objects.
The most intriguing testimony came from a municipal employee in Antibes, Mr. Casella, a resident of Bio [sic, Biot], who, returning home in the evening, found himself "face to face with an enormous mechanical craft measuring seven to eight meters in diameter, resting in the middle of the road." The witness, who was on a bicycle, approached the craft almost to the point of touching it, but at that moment, it lifted vertically and, with a slight whistling sound, disappeared into the sky.
In Le Puy, a bright object was observed between 5:50 p.m. and 6:35 p.m. on Friday by the meteorological station at Puy-Chadrac. The object appeared as an upright olive shape with a sort of black antenna at the top. The station chief initially thought he was looking at the planet Jupiter, but the object's sudden disappearance proved he was mistaken.
The same phenomenon was seen by the meteorological center in Rueyres (Cantal). These accounts align with that of thousands of residents of Tulle, who, around 3:30 p.m., saw a large, motionless, bright point in the sky toward the south-southeast. It appeared transparent and took the shape of a cylinder with conical ends.
Yesterday, the Mont Ventoux observatory observed for several hours an unknown craft hovering in the sky, in the direction of Orange.
The craft had the shape of an ovoid with two stacked cones, connected by some kind of antenna.
Dressed in a diver's suit, a tall man standing near a large red sphere on the road near Perpignan hurriedly returned to the craft upon seeing two large dogs accompanying Mr. Siguières, a retired customs officer. The sphere then rose vertically and soon disappeared at an astonishing speed.
Mr. Maurice Ruant, a farmer in Sinceny, near Chauny (Aisne), nearly became a victim of the panic caused by the appearance of flying saucers and other unidentified flying objects. While repairing his car in a field near his home, he was shot at twice with a hunting rifle. The pellets struck the vehicle’s body, close to his head.
Mr. Faisan, the shooter and neighbor of Mr. Ruant, told the police: "Seeing a silhouette moving in the light of two headlights, I thought I was facing a Martian repairing his flying saucer. So I went to get my gun and fired."
Despite his sincerity, Mr. Faisan will face prosecution.
Abroad, flying saucers continue to attract attention.
According to the "Evening News," a young Englishwoman encountered a metallic cylinder about four meters tall and three meters in diameter on her path during the night from Thursday to Friday. She ran for about a hundred meters, then turned back. The object had disappeared.
Numerous mysterious crafts were spotted in the Italian sky on Friday. One, circular in shape, landed near Rovigo before taking off vertically again, leaving a fairly deep crater six meters in diameter. Additionally, six poplar trees standing nearby were completely charred.
