The mystery surrounding the strange lights spotted in the night sky above Kings Langley has been solved.

The cluster of glowing orange lights seen passing over the village on Thursday April 23 were not extra terrestrial visitors as many alleged but 38 Chinese lanterns released in memory of Lucille Frawley who died of a brain tumour in October last year.

Lucille would have been 38 years old on that Thursday; with that in mind more than 100 of her friends and family gathered at Kings Langley Cricket Club to release the lanterns to mark the occasion.

Brother Tim Groom, 41, said: “We wanted to do something special for Lucille’s birthday. She was so well liked; much loved and is much missed.

“When I opened the Observer to see that people thought they were UFOs, I thought I better let everyone know the truth as we didn’t want to cause any distress.

Lucille, a former Hemel Hempstead resident, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in early January 2008.

Mr Groom, of Lansdowne Close in Watford, continued: “We thought she was going to be ok but come September time we got the news that she was not going to pull through.

“For her birthday last year we tried to go out but she had to come home early as she was unwell. She said we would have a big party this year by unfortunately it did not happen.

“The lanterns were a spectacular sight. They looked so beautiful. It was an emotional evening but my sister-in-law and mum were so pleased that people had seen them."

A tombola and auction were also held on the evening. More than £2,500 was raised for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust which will help fund research.