University students made up to look like zombies take part in a bid to break the world record for the "biggest zombie lurch" in Sydney
University students made up to look like zombies take part in a bid to break the world record for the "biggest zombie lurch" in Sydney. REUTERS

Lincolnshire is regarded as a paranormal hotspot in the UK and even has its own team of 'ghostbusters' and it needs it, according to recently uncovered police statistics.

Every year, police have to deal with a number of reports of incidents dealing with a wide range of topics.

Some are clearly of critical importance, whereas as others can be best described as 'non-emergencies.' But if you are convinced there is a vampire living across the street or a hoard of zombies coming through your door, surely that deserves a 999 call?

But there can't be that many people who have rang the police to complain that the neighbours are actually witches cooking up a spell or that that strange light in the sky is definitely an UFO. Well apparently in Lincolnshire - which is considered a 'paranormal hotspot'- there has.

Member of the public and possible X-Files fan Alexis Davey wanted to find out the actually figures for himself. Using the Freedom of Information Act of 2000, where public authorities must respond to any question, he asked to ask just how many paranormal activities had been reported to Lincolnshire police in the last five years.

The information released after the FOI revealed some quite surprising results. They showed that in the past five years there has been a total of:

  • 171 reports of witches
  • 2 reports of werewolves
  • 5 reports of vampires
  • 10 UFO sightings
  • 152 reports of ghosts
  • 9 reports of zombies
  • 627 reports of demons
  • 20 reports of wizards

These figures show that there has been nearly 1000 'paranormal' activities reported to Lincolnshire Police over the past five years, with nearly two-thirds of these cases listed reports of 'demons.'

Lincolnshire police were unable to comment on what the actually reasons for these reports were and how they were eventually resolved. Maybe the demons and wizards left Lincolnshire before a full investigation could take place.

The response did insist that the incidents shown are ones in which the key words were included in the summary of the original FOI, meaning that not all incidents could be classified as "paranormal activity." So whether this means the werewolves were actually big dogs, the ghosts were just the wind or zombies were just morning commuters is still a mystery. Most telling was a statement by the police that: "the sightings include incidents where the person could have a mental health problem."

The city of Lincoln does pride itself on having many areas which they claim are haunted by ghosts or other paranormal beings.

Buildings like the Black Horse restaurant in Nettleham and the County Assembly Rooms in Bailgate has reported mysterious sightings in the past such as strange noises, phantom figures appearing and poltergeist behaviour, according to the paranormal database website.