WAS the truth out there on a lonely Gwent road 15 years ago? It's like something straight out of the X-Files, but in 1997 a Gwent man claimed he had a close encounter of the third kind.

According to archives from the Ministry of Defence's(MoD) UFO desk released to the public today, a Gwent funeral worker was halted in his car by what he says was visitors from outer space on a country road near Devauden, Monmouthshire.

The meeting took place at 10.40pm on January 27, 1997, and is described in the male funeral worker's account as like "a tube of light coming down from the sky."

The hand-written account, which does not appear to have been directly reported by the victim himself, goes on to detail how the weather on the evening in question was calm and still and that no unusual meteorological conditions were reported for the day.

The report to the MoD's famous UFO desk went on: "The car radio and his mobile phone failed during the incident.

"The light was very bright remaining there for five minutes. There was no sound, no aircraft or helicopter noise and besides feeling ill he was very frightened.

"The car was covered in dirt and dust."

The incident, which was reported to Ebbw Vale police, is said to have left the unfortunate human party physically sick and suffering from a skin condition.

Other South Wales sightings recorded in the files include one on the Gower peninsula and another near Cardiff Airport.

And you don't need to call Mulder and Scully to investigate for you, as the archives will now be available online for people to view.

To view the archives visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos

Where the UFO was sighted