UFO strikes. A military death ray. Or the coming of Armageddon. Why ARE thousands of birds falling from the sky?

By Tom Leonard In New York

Last updated at 12:15 AM on 7th January 2011

There is talk of secret ­government experiments with death rays, ­collisions with UFOs, a demag­netised Earth’s core — and even the Second Coming of Christ.

It’s not the first occasion that America has been well and truly spooked by a series of bizarre occurrences, but is there reason to be worried this time?

The fish died first, with an estimated 85,000 ­carnivorous drum fish being washed up along a 17-mile stretch of the Arkansas River last Thursday. Local experts could not recall a time when so many had died so suddenly and, because it was confined to just one ­species, blamed disease.

On their own, dead fish — even so many — might not raise too many eyebrows. But just a day later, and only 100 miles away, it was the turn of the creatures of the air to give people a fright.

Just before the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, thousands of birds started to rain down on the small town of Beebe, Arkansas.

Up to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell in a short stretch no more than 800 yards wide, sprinkling roads, rooftops and lawns. In some places, the ground was turned almost black.

Terrified residents hurried indoors as the tiny creatures thudded down around them.

One hit a woman walking her dog, while another resident had to use an umbrella to protect herself. Local man Shane Roberts said it sounded like hail pelting on his roof. ‘I turn and look across my yard and there’s all these lumps,’ he said.

Milton McCullar, the town’s street department supervisor, said: ‘It was like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.’ He didn’t need to spell out which film. The emergency switchboard lit up as everyone rang in alarm.

‘Some of them were a little panicked, they thought it was the end of the world,’ said Eddie Cullum, the local police chief.

The residents’ unease only increased when environmental clean-up workers turned up wearing white hazardous suits, helmets and gas masks to clear away the birds.

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