The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) Institute for Space Studies recently held its first official conference on the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence, Prof. Lachezar Filipov told the Nova TV breakfast show.

“Until now this topic was sort of banned among the scientists,” he said. “But the growing public interest, not only in Bulgaria, but abroad, made BAS believe that we must respond to such phenomena.”

According to Filipov, the conference was prompted by the claims of “a serious man” that he saw a “large saucer of platinum colour, with no windows, hovering over Sofia's Kremikovtsi district” in mid-October. The witness told Filipov no one else around seemed to have noticed the flying object, or at least no one reacted.

“He found me and told me the story, but wishes to remain anonymous, because he is a serious man with large business enterprises and is afraid the people will make fun of him,” Filpov said. “He only told his wife and me.”

According to Filipov, there have been other documented cases where only one person among many, saw the UFO.

Filipov told Nova TV that the witness claims that after the “flying saucer” flew away, he experienced “a time warp” incident.

“This is why we want to set up a working group within our institute,” Filipov said. “There have been such reports previously, but no one seemed to take them very seriously. We need to investigate those claims and see how reliable they are. There are people who make things up, there are people who see things but tell nobody, there are people who find me and tell me what they saw. But most people are afraid everyone will think they're crazy. If they see that the scientists investigate such incidents, they might come out and tell us.”