A mysterious unidentified flying object has crash landed in North Yorkshire - damaging a car.

The shocked motorist escaped serious injury when the white stone-like object smashed onto the roof of his car causing a large dent.

Derek Morrow, 71, of Great Fencote, near to Northallerton, was startled by a loud bang as he parked his car outside his North Yorkshire home.

The retired chief technician with the RAF, of Chapel Crescent, found an inch deep dent in the roof of his Ford C-Max.

The roof of the car was coated with a white dust and about ten feet away was a strange white rock which was two inches wide by an inch deep.

He said: "There was no-one about at the time. My theory is that it must be space debris and it's made quite a dent. If it had hit me it would've done serious damage so I'm quite lucky."

The object is chalk-like in colour and has a dusty surface but it is quite hard and without any other markings.

Mr Morrow and his wife Margaret, 72, are keen to discover what the strange item is.

A RAF Leeming spokesman said no flights had left on Sunday morning from the airfield.

He said: "It's impossible for a lump of rock to fall from an aircraft with the checks that they carry out on planes."

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said it was more likely an astronomical event and probably did not come from an aircraft.

* Space debris? Pebble from a low flying jumbo jet? Or bit of rock thrown up by a passing tractor? Do you know what the object is, or where it came from? Contact Ian Noble on 01609-771023.