MOSCOW -- Reports of unidentified flying objects have filled local newspapers in the rural Vologda region of the Russian republic, the official Tass news agency reported Friday.
One group of children outside the village of Konantsevo on June 6 'spotted a fast-increasing luminous dot in the sky, which soon turned into a shining sphere,' Tass said.
'The mysterious object reportedly landed in a meadow and rolled to a nearby river as the children looked on no more than half a kilometer away.
'They claim that they saw the sphere kind of split, and something resembling a headless person in dark garb appeared in the meadow. It struck them that the alien's hands hung lower than his knees. At that moment, however, the 'flying craft' melted into the air, while the creature from it admittedly proceeded to the village.'
Tass quoted 'eyewitness accounts' as saying that three more spheres later touched down in the same meadow.
'Just like the very first one, the rest of the spheres and their 'passengers' quickly became invisible,' Tass said.
In other accounts, one child saw a 'fiery ball' over the town of Vologda on June 11 and another spotted a UFO in the same area the next day, Tass said.
'Weeks earlier, on April 24, an enigmatic object allegedly three times larger than an airplane flew over the city of Cherepovetsk, according to local inhabitant I. Veselova,' Tass said. 'The UFO coasted at an altitude of 300 meters (1,000 feet) absolutely noiselessly, leaving a large radiant trail.
'The witness claims that the nose and tail of the UFO ... carried blinking red lights.'
Science fiction books are among the most popular in the country and immediately disappear from store shevles.
Many Soviets are fascinated by alleged UFO sightings, parapsychology, faith healing and other supernatural phenomena.
