Villagers were awestruck by this rare 'mothership' cloud hovering above their homes.

The gloomy sight which resembled a huge alien spacecraft beaming down to earth was seen yesterday (19/09) morning in Quezon province, southern Philippines.

Locals living near Mount Banahaw where it was seen said the thick cloud formation spiralling upwards lasted around 35 minutes before faded away and disappeared in the skies.

Jao Fernando said: ''We've never seen this kind of cloud here before. It was so strange like a huge whirlwind but it wasn't moving. It was quite scary because it was very silent at the time.''

A farm owner said he saw the strange cloud formation while he was out tending the plants.

He said: "It also took hours before the strange shape was gone. It made the mountain even more beautiful."

The strange phenomenon is believed to be a mothership cloud, a type of supercell cloud, which forms before storms.

Supercells form due to updrafts of warm and moist air which rises and condenses as well as strong downdrafts.

Warm, most air pushes upward and is rotated by strong winds. There are three simplified thunderstorm types: the single-cell, the multicell and the supercell.

Of these, the multicell is the most common. A supercell thunderstorm is a special storm type which maintains an intense steady-state for many hours.