IN a mystery worthy of the X-Files, the authorities and astronomical experts were last night at odds over whether an extraterrestrial visitor had crash landed in North Yorkshire.

The out-of-this-world alert was sparked when a woman walking her dogs appeared to have a lucky escape when what she thought was a meteorite landed only feet away.

Sylvia Mercer felt a whistle through the air near her, heard an ear-splitting bang and saw a small crater open up in the ground.

University scientists were immediately on the scene at Hopgrove, on the edge of York, to peer down the metre-deep smouldering, hissing hole in the ground.

An Army bomb disposal team from Catterick Garrison was called in and police sealed off the area - and even considered evacuating residents from the nearest street.

Mrs Mercer, who was walking her dogs Chubby and Annie at about 8am, said: "It was very frightening. I thought my last moments had come. I was very shaken - it could have hit me.

"I heard this terrific bang and then a smaller bang and when I looked around there was a big cloud of smoke.

"There was a hole in the ground with smoke billowing out of it."

PC Peter McCreedy, the first officer on the scene, said: "It started making popping and cracking noises. Experts from York University have been here with radioactive detection equipment."

The consensus was that the UFO was a meteorite - sending the media and astronomy experts into a frenzy of cosmic proportions.

But, as the day progressed, it emerged that this had probably been the close encounter that never was.

City of York Council said last night that the suspected meteorite was in fact an underground electricity cable which had exploded and blown upwards - creating the hole which was thought to be the meteorite's crater.

However, North Yorkshire Police insisted that their first diagnosis had been correct.

A spokesman said: "A curator has been down from the Yorkshire Museum and has identified that we do have a meteorite and a suitable crater for it to sit in."