Many locals in Conisholme Lincolnshire, along with the UK’s Sun newspaper, are convinced damage to the turbine, which involved one of its 21.9m (72ft) blades being ripped off and another being mangled, was caused by aliens.

Locals say they saw a massive ball of light with tentacles extending down to the wind turbine – leading to speculation about an ‘Octopus UFO.’ Other theories include a collision with an RAF stealth jet or a Russian spy plane, and direct hits by a meteorite or a flying block of frozen urine from a passing passenger jet.

Ecotricity, which has been inundated with press enquires from around the world since the story began to circulate on the internet during the early part of the week, says its investigation team, which has been on the site since the day of the accident, has not found any clear indication of the cause of the accident.

“We have been in the industry for around 15 years and we have 50 turbines operating, and nothing has every happened like this,” says a spokesperson for the company. She adds, “We can’t rule anything out. We are happy that it was a unique and one-off incident.” The latter two statements will keep the conspiracy theorists very busy for now.

Meanwhile, guardian journalist Emily Bell and her husband, Financial Times Energy correspondent Ed Crooks, have been expounding their own, less attractive theory: the UFOs were actually fireworks from a party thrown for her father’s 80th birthday nearby. So far so good for the flashing lights, although, Bell has not explained how domestic party fireworks – no matter how potent – would be capable of causing such catastrophic damage to such a massive structure.

Since the Sun began championing the story on 8 January, the “serious” experts have begun to weigh-in with their opinions. Some have put forward the rather mundane explanation of metal fatigue, although Ecotricity says that the turbine is only a year old.

Other experts have pointed to accidents in Arhus, Denmark and Kintyre in Scotland in recent years where a combination of loosened blades and windy weather has caused whole structures to collapse. Yet others have suggested the build up of ice on the blades, which could have then led to flying ice from one blade impacting the other.

The investigation continues.(Copyright)