STRANGE things were afoot in Merseyside last night – not errant trick or treaters, or kids setting off fireworks ahead of Bonfire Night, but a red beam of light shining out of Birkenhead.

If you tuned into Radio Merseyside from 10.30-11pm, you will have heard the presenters scrambling to get to the bottom of the story, listeners texting their opinions and Roger Phillips phoning in to report his own investigations into the strange beacon.

Meanwhile, the news of the red light spread across social media websites Twitter and Facebook.

Back on the radio, reports started coming in of witnesses vanishing and dazed people wandering the streets, sirens wailed and then . . . a crash – and the station went off air.

Before you start wailing “the aliens have landed” and hiding under your desks in fear, know this – the red beam and 30-minute broadcast was part of an art work.

Created by artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard for the Abandon Normal Devices art festival, it featured a pre-recorded radio play. Even Phillips’s part was fake – drawing on his acting experience gleaned at the Liverpool Everyman back in the 70s.

The beam of light was real, as was the online response to it as local people tried to understand what was happening.