A couple captured a mesmerising ‘halo-shaped UFO’ in a four-minute long video on their smartphone.

The footage, shot by Lucio Margiotta and his fiancée in Salento, southern Italy, reveals a strong, luminous light in the night sky.

It changes shape, size and colour – even morphing into a halo shape likened to a cigarette smoke ring – before finally appearing to split in two and vanish.

Music teacher Lucio’s phone video, reported on tagpress.it , is said to be totally genuine, untampered with footage.

The strange phenomenon was brighter than the moon and came from the west, roughly from the direction of Gallipoli, Turkey, where others also reported seeing the unidentified flying object .

Some, commenting on Facebook, claimed it was the planet Venus, which would reach peak visibility at the same time as the images were recorded – between 7.30pm and 8pm.

Others said it could have been the reflection of a satellite.