Hiker snaps ‘ghost-like figure’ on mountain and it turns out to be rare phenomenon
A HIKER photographed a “ghost-like figure” when he climbed a mountain which turned out to be a rare phenomenon.
Thomas Swallow, 39, had gone ahead of his friends when he turned and saw a figure hovering high above the ground.
But he was actually looking at his own reflection on Great End in the Lake District.
The phenomenon is a rare optical illusion known as a brocken spectre, where a large shadow is cast onto cloud or mist.
Thomas, of Manchester, said: "I was taken aback a little bit. It's really beautiful.
"It looks like a figure floating into the sky, it looks quite spiritual.
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"It was weird, surreal and a really beautiful moment - I was looking down a gully from the summit, the sun was behind me and shining bright.
"It was a cloudy day so the clouds were moving in and out of the summit.
"I could see moisture particles in the air when I looked up and I saw my shadow in the middle of a rainbow.
"I was in the moment and enjoying it thinking 'I've never seen anything like this before'."
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He continued: "People have said what an amazing and beautiful shot it is and that it looks like a figure floating to the sky.
"I'm not religious but I'm a bit spiritual and I didn't think how spiritual it was until I thought about it afterwards."
Thomas and his friends Adam Maxwell, 27, and Matthew Buck, 39, carried on their six-hour walk afterwards.
They stopped and watched it for up to 15 minutes and took lots of photos of the illusion, spotted in December.
Last month we told how a woman spotted an eerie figure in her TV screen.
Esmerelda is seen relaxing on her sofa alone in a self-recorded video, but as she pans the camera to face her television, it appears that she might not be alone.
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And last year a mum became convinced her flat was haunted after a ghost-like figure popped up in the background of a photo she took with friend.
Rebecca Glassborow, 30, said she could not sleep after seeing it.