A 61-year-old man was forced to run for cover when the heavens opened and blue jelly-like balls began falling from the skies.

Steve Hornsby told The Sun the sky turned a strange yellow colour before the slippery, transparent balls began raining down.

He said: “There was… a short, sharp hail storm that lasted for about 20 seconds.

“I had seen the hail come down and it looked like rock salt. But then I spotted something on the lawn and it looked like broken glass and I thought it must be the kids.

“But then I put my foot on it and it disappeared and I thought it was strange.”

Mr Hornsby believes the strange spheres may be some sort of pollution that was blown across the continent, but the Met Office says the substance is “not meterological”, the Daily Mail reported.

A scientist at his local university in Dorset has suggested they may be eggs taken from the sea by a bird and dropped over Mr Hornsby’s house – but it seems unlikely as there are no embryos inside them.

Other theories are the balls are sodium polyacrylate crystals used in floral displays or ammunition for a toy gun, the BBC reported.

Mr Hornsby added: “They were almost impossible to pick up, they were very jelly-like. I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar. They had an exterior shell with a soft inside.

“It’s the most peculiar thing I have ever seen – there must be about 20 complete spheres. They don’t smell and they don’t float. I’ve been an aircraft engineer for many years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

UPDATE

Josie Pegg, a research assistant at Bournemouth University, provided an initial analysis today.

She told the Guardian: “Speculation on the nature of the mystery jelly balls has provided much entertainment, but now that we have possession of a sample we can rule out some of the early guesses. Having examined the balls under a high-powered microscope, we can discount living material."

A chemical analysis will now be carried out on the mystery blue balls.