WAS it a bird? Was it a plane? Or was it even a UFO? No it was a tyre firm’s promotional airship.

The Malvern Gazette has taken several calls in recent days from readers who saw a strange object moving slowly across the skies on Friday evening.

“Just wondered whether anyone else has reported seeing an object in the sky on the evening of March 16?” asked Bev Williams.

“We were leaving our house at Leigh Sinton at approximately 7.15pm to go shopping and saw a large, upside down bowl shaped object in the sky.

“It was glowing orange with a number of flashing lights underneath and moving very slowly, almost hovering.

“Hopefully, there is a perfectly normal explanation.”

About the same time the same sight caught the attention of journalist Mike Pryce, who lives a few miles across country at Suckley. “I wasn’t quite sure what it was at first,” he admitted, “because there was no sound and it was carrying quite a lot of lights.

“So I got the binoculars out and that rather gave the game away, because plastered down the side of the object was Goodyear, which I doubt is a trade name on Mars.”

A call to the Goodyear headquarters in Birmingham confirmed the sighting.

So Tom Cruise can stand down.

Top Gun not needed to intercept this time.