Chinese man arrested for making rubber alien

As proof of extraterrestrial life, one Chinese man's crudely built rubber alien, stashed in a chest freezer in his garage, was rather unconvincing. Shortly after he proudly posted photographs of his alien on the internet, the farmer, named only as Mr Li, was arrested by the police for five days for "fabrications" that "disturbed the public order".

Mr Li was forced to admit that he had indeed sought to use his model, held together with chicken wire and glue, to mislead his fellow Chinese about the existence of celestial creatures. Initially, Mr Li had posted his close encounter on a Chinese website, together with a shaggy dog story about how he had captured the alien while setting traps for rabbits.

"I was setting an electric trap for rabbits by the Yellow river when I saw a bright light," he said. "Above my bike, a UFO was floating. One by one, five aliens came down, but one of them stumbled into one of my rabbit traps and was electrocuted. The others went back into their ship and flew away."

However after his post went viral, the Chinese authorities moved quickly to limit the effect it might have on the extremely gullible. Not only was Mr Li's initial post deleted, but the police soon arrived to arrest him. "After the police interrogated me, I confessed I was a fan of UFOs and the alien was a fake. I just wanted other people to believe that aliens existed," he said.