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The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Oise-Matin, France, Jaunary 1, 1974.
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LILLE. -- A new "unidentified flying object" has just been reported in northern France. Last September, on two occasions, flying saucers were observed by several people, near Maubeuge. Yesterday morning, it was in the lower mining region, between La Bassée and Lens, that a grocer from Haisnes, Mr. Jean Liefooghe, claimed to have made a similar observation.
"It was 7 a.m., says Mr. Liefooghe. I drove on the R.N. 347 to go to the halls of Lens when I saw, 80 meters to my right, two headlights stopped on the side. I assumed it was a vehicle. But suddenly, at extreme speed, the craft crossed the road, then I lost sight of it.
"Two hundred meters further", the motorist continues, "I saw a big glow 400 meters from the road. It was an object in the shape of a cigar, red in color, surrounded by an orange-red incandescence. I thought I was having a hallucination or that the lights of a department store located nearby were reflected in the sky. To be sure", he continued, "returning from the halls, I stopped at this place. It had frozen. I first noted the traces of small steps, then circular footprints of almost 10 centimeters in diameter sinking several centimeters into the ground. There are thus 3 holes on the ground forming a triangle with a base of 8.90 m and sides of 4.40 m.
For Mr. Liefooghe, there is no doubt: "There were two aircraft, one which was on patrol and the mother craft which was waiting for it to take off."
"What also struck me, he said, is that there was no sound when the "cigar" flew away. I informed the gendarmes of Pont-à-Vendin who noted the traces that I had discovered."
At the gendarmerie of Pont-à-Vendin, in charge of the investigation, this affair is being followed very closely. Fresh traces, corresponding to the declarations of Mr. Liefooghe, were indeed noted on the frozen ground and we find no explanation there, declared one of the investigators.
