Northern lights turn skies magenta over East of England

The Northern Lights could be seen from Hingham, in Norfolk

The Northern Lights have lit up the sky in beautiful hues of red and magenta visible from the East of England.

Sightings were reported in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and beyond.

The lights are caused by the interaction of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles escaping the Sun, and Earth's atmosphere.

Richard Rawling captured the aurora on his phone camera at Hingham, in Norfolk, shortly after 19:00 GMT on Sunday and was "absolutely amazed".

Some - like Mr Rawling - who are keen spotters of the spectacle, use an app to alert them to the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights.

"The aurora app indicated it might be visible and I thought we'd take a quick look to the north," he said.

"We've seen the lights in Norway and Finland, but seeing the sky lit up red from our back garden was amazing - I could not believe it."

BBC forecaster and Weatherquest meteorologist Dan Holley had earlier posted on X (formerly Twitter) telling followers: "If you have clear skies, look to the north right now. Not even fully dark yet but Aurora clearly visible by eye."

Several took his advice and posted their photographs to the BBC Weather Watchers site.

The natural lightshow was also seen from the River Deben area in Suffolk

Andy Cronk captured this view of the Arctic lights from Upwood, near Peterborough

Beautiful colours lighting up the sky were captured near Wymondham, Norfolk

Brancaster Staithe also saw an amazing show of lights