Updated: A METEORITE strike may have led to emergency services receiving reports of a plane crash in North Yorkshire.

Fire crews from Selby, Tadcaster and West Yorkshire were called to the Whitley Bridge area at about 12.10am yesterday after reports an aircraft may have come down in the area.

However, nothing was found and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service said a meteorite strike was possibly the reason for the alert.

North Yorkshire Police had received calls about “weird lights” in the Whitley Bridge area, near Goole. The force mobilised a helicopter to search for any signs of wreckage.

A spokesman said: “Police and other emergency services attended a report from a member of the public in the Whitley Bridge area following a reported sighting of a plane or similar crashing into the ground, after which flames had been seen.

“The sighting was in the area around the junction of the M18 and M62.

“Nothing was found in the area despite a search including air support.

“The police have received no reports of any damage or injury consistent with any such sighting.”

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth’s surface.

North Yorkshire has been a hot-spot for spotting meteorites in the past.

The Middlesbrough Meteorite hit the earth in March, 1881.

The British Museum asked for the 4,500 million-year-old relic, but it ended up at the Yorkshire Museum after the North East Railway company deemed the article “lost property”, because it fell on their land, and insisted that it should stay in Yorkshire.

In August, the Forestry Commission stages an annual Nightwatch event in Dalby Forest to coincide with the Perseid meteor shower.

The phenomenon is sometimes known as the Tears Of St Lawrence because it occurs near the anniversary of the death of the Christian martyr, who was roasted alive by order of the Roman emperor Valerian in 258 AD.

•Did you see the meteorite early on Tuesday? If so, phone Jennifer Bell on 01904 567131.