Is anybody out there? Reported UFO sightings in Hong Kong up 70 percent in 2018

Forget about the wild boars, it’s UFOs in Hong Kong we should be worrying about.

The Hong Kong Observatory has said that they received 24 reports of UFO sightings in Hong Kong in 2018, a 70 percent increase from the 14 reported sightings in the SAR in 2017, HK01 reports

According to HK01, the numbers were disclosed by the Observatory in a document submitted to the Legislative Council.

The Observatory said that they received 88 reports of UFO sightings over the past five years, with 2018 having the most in that period.

Every district in Hong Kong reported at least one sighting over the last five years, with Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan leading the pack, with nine and eight sightings, respectively. Wong Tai Sin and Tai Po, meanwhile, were the least-frequented districts, with just one reported UFO sighting apiece.

But if the previous five-year period is any indication, our would-be extraterrestrial overlords appear to be losing interest in the SAR. According to previous documents submitted to LegCo, the Observatory received a whopping 53 reports of UFO sightings for the year 2010, and 154 reports of UFO sightings in the five-year period from 2010 to 2014.

Videos purporting to show UFOs in Hong Kong aren’t uncommon on YouTube. One, shot in Fanling in December (and narrated by a surprisingly chill dad who seems more exhausted by his kids’ questions than anything else), shows what appears to be an illuminated object emitting concentric circles of lights while hovering above a building.

Another, meanwhile, purportedly shows an alleged UFO having a quick gander at pro-democracy protests in 2014.

Sightings in and around the SAR date back to at least the 1970s. The South China Morning Post last year recalled a July, 1978 story in which a purported UFO sighting over Macau was believed debunked “when four young men on a boating trip came across a grounded weather data-collecting instrument.”

So there you have it. Nothing to see here. Just some boring old weather data-collecting instruments.

Then again, that’s just what the Hong Kong Observatory would want you to believe…