UFOs in the daily Press:

In the North

THE TWO PASSENGERS OF A FLYING SAUCER WERE SEEN

LILLE. -- Recently, in the Somme or the Pyrenees, flying saucers have been seen in the sky. Mr. Marius Dewilde, 34 years old, a worker at the Blanc Liseron [sic] steelworks, living in Tuarouge [sic], in the North, saw, the other night around 10:30 p.m., about 7 meters from his garden, a dark shape, 3 meters tall and 6 meters in diameter. Then two small strange beings, about one meter tall, ran out from a nearby path. Next, the craft, whose door had opened and closed, rose about ten meters after oscillating for a moment. A very bright light burst forth, and, like a ball of fire, the object disappeared toward the West...

Around 10:15 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Dewilde was peacefully reading a weekly magazine while his wife was knitting in bed. The children were asleep. Suddenly, their dog Kiki barked from his kennel. The place is isolated, and intrigued, Mr. Dewilde listened closely. But hearing nothing, he continued his reading. However, Kiki barked more and more fiercely, even howling as if in distress. The former sailor decided to go see what was happening outside. Let's hear it in his own words:

- Upon going out, I tried to calm Kiki, then my gaze was drawn to a dark mass on the rails that border the garden.

"Well," I thought, "a farmer must have left a hay cart there. Sometimes, people bring in the harvest using the ballast, because the roads in this marsh are quite poor. I need to do something because the train tomorrow could have an accident."

"So I turned on my flashlight. But at that moment, I heard footsteps. I shone the light ahead of me, and the beam revealed two small figures that immediately started running. I rushed to catch one. Somehow, instinctively, I realized something unusual was happening. I was only two meters away from the figures when from the dark mass came an extremely powerful illumination, like a magnesium flash, that blinded me. I closed my eyes. I remained paralyzed in front of my garden gate, which was open, even though my wife assured me she had closed it when she came in last. I stayed frozen for an undetermined time, maybe a minute. Then the dark mass rose into the air and disappeared toward Anzin."

Mr. Dewilde did not hear any noise, except for a slight whistling sound produced by smoke escaping from the rear of the saucer. It was circular, about 7 meters long and 3.5 meters high. The strange beings Mr. Dewilde pursued were perhaps 80 cm tall. They ran very fast, and the witness did not see their arms in the beam of his flashlight. He noticed a kind of helmet on their heads that might have been made of plexiglass.

As soon as this astonishing adventure happened, he rushed to the gendarmerie, but no one would open the door. He then went to the Hornaing [sic] police station, where he was taken for a madman.

We should add that our investigation revealed that a young man from Hornaing saw, the same evening around 10:30 p.m., a considerable glow in the direction of the railway.

We should also add that the police, the Air Force gendarmerie, and the D.S.T., who went to the site, took various samples.

Charred stones were found at the spot where the saucer allegedly landed — it would be interesting to determine their origin — and investigators also noted fresh marks on the wooden sleepers of the rails, which could not be explained.