People questioned whether the lights spotted in the skies around Meadowhall on Saturday night were birds. Others pondered whether the glowing objects were planes.

And the more imaginative questioned whether the unidentified floating objects were exactly that - UFOs.

But theories about the source of the strange lights appear to have been nothing more than Chinese whispers.

Shop assistant Paul Phillips contacted The Star after reading about the mystery.

"I reckon I might be to blame," said Paul, 30, of Dinnington.

"On Saturday I took 10 Chinese lanterns onto the field near where I live and released them to keep my kids entertained.

"They're great, you light a fire inside them and they float just like mini hot air balloons.

"We watched as they floated towards Sheffield then lost sight of them, they must have travelled all the way down the Rother Valley."

Paul say the lanterns are for sale at the Galactic Fireworks shop where he works, in Hangman's Lane, Dinnington, priced £3.95 each.

He added: "The kids love them and they're great for parties, but I never thought they would cause this much fuss."

Do you think that is the answer to the lights mystery? Add your comment below.

Here are what our readers made of the lights:

Sarah from Low Wincobank - I clearly saw the lights Saturday night although the photo is not the best, it is the best out of the couple i took with my phone. the lights were the strangest thing i have ever seen.
I actually live at Low Wincobank, the only time i ever wished i owned a camcorder as it was an incredible sight to see.

Katie from Shiregreen - I spotted them when I was coming home from a night out, I had to go and get my neighbor to look as well because I wasn't sure what I was seeing.
There were about 10 orange lights slowly moving to the right over Beck road chapel, they seemed to be in constellation patterns like the plow.
There were like the street light orange color but they were below the clouds because you could see some stars above the clouds. My neighbor thought that there could have been something going on at the arena? Then they slowly faded as they moved out of sight.

Sam Creasey, Shiregreen - I was round at my neighbours house for a bonfire and a bbq when the lights appeared. We were all quite bemused as to what they were and thought it could have been ufos or something!
After closer inspection with a small telescope, they turned out to be something like Chinese lanterns - a small candle inside a small box with a silk parachute attached (sort of like a mini hot air balloon). Myself and my neighbour went across the road and they seemed to be coming from a back garden on Mason Lathe Road.
Hope this helps all you "Star" gazers out there!

Andy - I saw a pair of large round bright orange lights in the same area but on Friday night. They were quite low in the sky in the general direction of Meadowhall.

Mr D Higgins - I also saw these lights, they were coming from over the top of the wooly woods from the shiregreen area. All the sightings of the lights were scene around 10:30-11:00. I also live near meadowhall and did see some similiar green lights around the same time.
Earlier on in the day there was a asian wedding, and i have heard after they usually light some lanterns to mark the occasion but this can not be the real explanation as the lanterns do not reach that high in the sky and plus all the lights were going in the same direction and disapearing in the sky.

Debra from Kimberworth, Rotherham - I also saw the strange lights in the sky on Saturday night around 2300 hrs. First I counted a cluster of 18 lights seeming to track along side the M1 motorway (around junction 34 @ Meadowhall .) Approximately thirty seconds later another batch of around 20 followed, with 2 or 3 spaced out before the last set of 16 lights filtered along. The strange thing was that there was no noise at all. Had they been helicopters (especially that many of them) you would have most definitely heard some kind of engine sound. I tried to find out news about the phenomenon on the TV and Radio but without any joy. I was really tempted to ring South Yorkshire Police to ask what was going on. In hind sight all those witnessing the sky's light display on Saturday night should have helped block the police phone lines, and with such concerns spotted by so many would have prompted the police to investigate sooner. Alas I was one of the many that did no such thing, so the opportunity to find answers to our questions was lost by all.
However, I do believe this should be looked into with great care and urgency and not swept under the carpet. Anyone out there with the answers to our conundrum should come forward and inform the public who? what? where? and why? they were sighted in such large numbers at the weekend. Perhaps it will then put piece of mind back in those who viewed what was happening, or perhaps not!

Ryan in Firth Park - We saw the strange lights over concord park. There was about 10 of these lights that went over us at 22.10 on the 26th of july.

Sara Melia, Wincobank - Just read your article about mysterious objects in the sky over Concord Park on Saturday evening, I was sat out enjoying the weather with my neighbours when we saw the Chinese Lanterns overhead, they were spectacular racing each other thruogh the thermals in the night sky.
A pair of binoculars helped us to see the flames quite clearly.
Probably a wedding somewhere in the area. Definitely not an Astroid breaking up!

J Taylor - With regard to the lights over Sheffield on Saturday night,we were standing watching them from Standon Road Wincobank for at least 15 minutes.There were at least 20-30 of them perhaps more, the ones we saw were all orange and passed over silently going at quite high speed
The first ones seemed to be in a crescent shape,and the rest followed on behind in ones and twos.We were all amazed at what we were seeing none of us had seen anything like it before nor could we offer any explanation as to what they could be and would be very interested to know.

Caroline Hallam - YES we did see the mysterious orange/red lights @ about 11:00pm saturday night. We first thought it was an helicopter flyin by but then we saw more, 8 @ first in a zig zay formation then 2 more followed, they travelled slowly through the sky then disapeared one by one after gettin so far. They all disapeared @ the same time and in the same place. At first when i saw them i rushed for my camera to film them but i could not catch anything wat so ever, it was like they were invisible. my neighbour said they could have been chinese lanterns, but i said they wouldnt have disapeared @ the same time and place. So all i could suggest is that they were some kind of alien space ships. I went on my ps3 afterwards to look on the youtube website, and i found a footage of the same thing but in manchester on the 22nd of the same month.

Hayley Biggin - The mysterious lights were balloons with candles in them from the shiregreen arms ( the penguin pub)

Stuart Green - ha-ha cant believe nobody has seen these before, there the lanterns they use in Asia,

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