Roswell, NM, USA - October 20, 2024

[Note: partially no sound]

This is the moment America's UFO central Roswell was brought to a halt by a more down-to-earth problem - torrential rainfall.

The district in New Mexico is notorious for the legendary Roswell Incident where the US Air Force recovered what are still thought by many to be the remains of a crashed alien spaceship.

But now the city is struggling to cope with record rainfall levels that have brought it to a standstill and claimed two lives.

In one day, on 19th October, 5.78 inches of rain fell on the city, wiping out a 123-year-old record.

Video footage released by the Chaves County Sheriff's Office shows firefighters and police towing a pick-up truck to safety from a road so flooded it looks like a river.

As the truck is pulled from the flood, water can be seen pouring from its interior.

Local media reports say more than 300 people have been rescued by emergency service workers and the National Guard since the downpour.

Roswell is famous worldwide for reports of the 1947 UFO crash that the military first reported as a downed "flying disc".

They later claimed it was a weather balloon but the idea of an alien spacecraft crash has gripped the world ever since.

The town has alien-themed restaurants, crash site tours and even a replica UFO apparently broken down by the side of a road with an alien family looking for a lift.