Hundreds of believers were lined up before the church of Sveti Dimitrije in Skopje to see icons that have started to shine without an apparent explanation, an AFP journalist reported today.

"It is really a miracle, it started yesterday in the central part of the iconostasis (a wall of icons and religious paintings), the golden colour is very visible and the phenomenon continues," Father Dimce Malinov told AFP.

According  to the priest the icons and the frescoes in the Orthodox church started to shine as if they were being buffed by an invisible hand.

"Since this morning I have observed the phenomenon, half of the icons are already cleaned. First a red colour appears which turns golden (..) You can see the icons clearing up from top to bottom," Father Malinov said.

An AFP journalist on the scene said that it did look like the icons were getting brighter as she observed them.

The leader if the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC), Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid, came to the Sveti Dimitrije church on Monday to see the icons but would not comment.

Some 80 percent of the former Yugoslav republic's two million people are Orthodox Christians.