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EARLY JULY 1998 - CWMAFAN

On a Thursday night in early July 1998, at about 10.30 PM, in clear, dark conditions, 12-year-old friends, Lin Thomas and Kirsty Harris were walking in Cwmafan, from Heol-Y-Glas Avenue up a path through the 'shrubbery' as it is locally known, before the S bend on Cefn Coed Road. The girls were walking to Kirsty's house in Cefn Coed Road, the intention being that Lin was having a sleep-over there.

Whilst walking through the 'shrubbery' they looked back to see a big bright white light in the sky over Cwmafan, to the north-east of them. They thought at first that it was a star, but it grew larger to become a large sphere about one quarter the size of a full moon, round and bright. It hovered, making no noise.

The object then extended its shape on both sides to become a white cylinder-shaped object, lying horizontally, the same thickness as the sphere it had been.

Then from the left hand side of the object it became shorter to once more become a sphere. Once it had returned to being a sphere, the witnesses noticed randomly flickering, pastel-blue pulses or flashes of light around the outside edge of the object, appearing in no apparent pattern or order. The girls then noticed that the object had started moving towards them on the hillside where they stood in growing fear,.

They ran to Kirsty's house in Cefn Coed Road, but there was no one at home, so they ran on to Pine Valley to Lin's house, where they excitedly told Lin's mother and step-father what they had seen. Her mother dismissed it as a police helicopter. Lin angrily responded by rejecting that theory, but the adults refused to believe the girls.

Not surprisingly due to their fear of going back out, Kirsty then had a sleep over at Lin's house.

Source: SUFON Files: Emlyn Williams interviewed Lin Cullen (nee Thomas) 20 August 2016.