A GUEST staying at the Falmouth Hotel has told how police knocked on the door of her room in the early hours of the morning telling her and her husband they had to get out because of an 'incident'.

A criminal investigation has been launched after a hoax 'device' was found in the grounds of the Falmouth Hotel in the early hours of this morning.

Police were called to the hotel at around 3.15am this morning following reports of a suspicious package having been located on the grounds outside of the hotel, Cliff Road.

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Hotels evacuated after 'hoax' device found in grounds of hotel at start of G7

Guests Sarah Cartlidge and her husband Tim from Bournemouth were woken up by shouting in the corridor of the hotel at around twenty past four in the morning with police telling everyone to evacuate.The next thing they knew there was a policeman at their door telling them they had to evacuate immediately as there had been an incident on the front lawn of the hotel and they had only seconds to grab something to wear.

They put on the nearest things they could find and then left the room and went downstairs and were directed onto the car park at the front of the hotel.

Falmouth Packet:

Hotels evacuated after 'hoax' device found in grounds of hotel at start of G7. Picture Sarah Cartlidge

"We were stood outside for 45 to 50 minutes while police were searching the grounds," said Sarah, who booked their holiday in Falmouth before it was even announced that the G7 summit was taking place."They had torches which they were shining in the undergrowth and bushes and doing a circle of the grounds. We didn't know anything at this state as to what was going on or what the nature of the incident actually was.

"A police officer then came into the car park and said. 'Everyone's going to have to move for their own safety'. There were two police cars at the back of the hotel and quite a few police officers at the scene buzzing around at this point and then we were told to go to the car park near the Premier stores.

Falmouth Packet:

Hotels evacuated after 'hoax' device found in grounds of hotel at start of G7. Picture Sarah Cartlidge

"We didn't really know what was going on. It was only when I looked at Twitter and saw Devon and Cornwall Police tweet about the device that we actually knew what was happening. It said about the cordon."

She said an officer told them they were going to move them to a building but they didn't know how long for.

"There were all ages of people there," she said. "Some of them in their dressing gowns and others in wheelchairs and they needed attending to. The police had to drive some of the guests from the hotel to the car park as they weren't able to walk that distance. We were all ready just about to go into this building when some other the guests behind us did a U-turn and said they had been told that they could go back to their hotel."

It was around ten to six this morning that the guests were allowed back into the hotel, but the bomb squad was still there outside the front of the building. The guests had been outside for nearly two hours.

"Most of guests seemed a bit bemused and joking," said Sarah. "The fact there wasn't a helicopter made me think it wasn't as serious. The fact we didn't get pushed out of the grounds immediately made me think it wasn't so serious, but it was a bit surprising being woken up by police at 20 past four in the morning."