Spanish ‘spaceship’ spooks holidaymaker

This shape hovering in the sky at first looked ominously like a UFO — but on closer inspection turned out to be an “altocumulus” cloud.

John Mead, of Warlingham, Surrey, and his wife were driving back to their holiday home near Alicante, on the east coast of Spain, when “suddenly it was there in front of us”.

Mr Mead, 66, said: “I jumped out of the car to take a picture, thinking it would blow away, but it just hovered there. It was spooky. You know it’s not a UFO, but it was the same shape you would imagine a spaceship to be, but I didn’t see any little green men anywhere.”

The Met Office said his picture was of an altocumulus cloud, which often form in patches in the shape of “almonds, lenses or a pile of plates”.

Forecaster Helen Roberts said: “It’s a wonderful photo. This is often called a wave cloud. They may be triggered by hills only a few hundred metres high. The cloud as a whole is usually stationary or slow moving. These clouds often have very smooth outlines. They may appear well distributed over the sky, or as a single element.”