Residents of Mullion were given a rude awakening during the early hours of this morning by the sound of a church bell ringing out of control.

At around 3.20am, residents took to Facebook to share their surprise and humour following the rude awakening at St Mellanus Church, with some people leaving their houses and going to the church to find out what was happening.

One person wrote: “Woke me and the wife up around 3.25am,” while another said "We were worried someone had broken in. So glad to hear it wasn’t that.”

In reference to the Second World War, and the method of ringing the bells to warn of an invasion, one person joked: "Not a parachusist to be seen - invasions are not what they used to be. Thought perhaps the general election had been brought forward!"

Another commenter simply said: “Hells bells!”

While the cause of why the bell rang out at that time is still under investigation, it appears a malfunctioning support stay on the second bell caused it to ring down until it came to a natural stop.

“Sorry if anyone was disturbed at 3.20am this morning when one of the bells decided to ring itself down in the tower,” said St Mellanus Church bell ringer Sarah Kew.

“Although I’m not sure at this stage what caused it, it may be that the support stay released itself, causing the bell to ring down until it came to a stop. This will be looked into.”

She later gave an update to say: "It was a support stay fail on the second bell. This bell seems to be having ongoing problems which we hope to fix .

"The other five will be rung down at 12pm. Thank you for your humerous support in this unusual event!"

The other five bells at Mellanus Church are scheduled to be rung as normal at 12pm today (Tuesday).

While this unexpected wake-up call may have been unsettling, it seems the incident has brought a bit of lightheartedness to the community.