A mystery object thought to have hurtled from space into York was the result of a meteoric mistake by officials.

Expert geologist Dr Phil Manning, from the Yorkshire Museum, confirmed yesterday that he believed a smoking hole in the earth in Hopgrove Lane South had been caused by a meteor.

Police closed the road while an army bomb disposal unit was called out. Officers prepared to evacuate homes while five hours of digging was carried out.

Dr Manning then pulled out some burnt wire, and revealed it had been an electrical fire underground.

He said: "Instead of a meteorite this has been a meteor-wrong.

"The electricity people have seen this before, but I thought it looked like something had hit the ground, and the army and police believed that as well.

"It's not a total waste of time. I've learnt a lot at the end of the day, and I can write it up for other meteor hunters to watch out for."

Sylvia Mercer, of Brandon Grove, thought she had narrowly escaped being struck by the "meteorite" while out walking her dog.

A City of York Council said afterwards what flew past her head, sparking the UFO panic, was in fact a "big clod of earth."

"It missed her by about six feet and might well have caused unpleasant injuries if it had made contact.

"But it certainly would not have had the same devastating effect as a meteorite."

Sylvia herself said: "I'm quite disappointed to discover I've not survived a meteorite falling from the skies at the spoeed of sound, which is what the experts told me it was.

"Never mind, it will give someone a laugh to discover we were all fooled."

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police said: "Our main priority is to make sure that the public are safe which is why we secured the site and made sure that we contacted the relevant experts.

"Fortunately Northern Electric was able to put it right.

"We've had our fun and games with invasions from outer space this week, but luckily it turned out to be nothing more suspicious than a severed electrical cable."

Updated: 11:00 Friday, March 02, 2001