A MAJOR security alert was triggered in Kerry when an amateur photographer trying to capture night skies was mistaken for a sniper.

The drama unfolded on Derrynane Beach around dusk when a walker spotted the completely innocent snapper walking across the beach carrying his camera tripod.

2 Derrynane Beach where the photographer was snapping the night skies

The man believed he was carrying a rifle and alerted gardai, who descended on the picturesque area in large numbers.

They were acting on information received from the walker that there was a dangerous gunman on the prowl.

The Cork based photographer, who was unaware of the alert he had created, was simply in the area in the middle of Kerry’s world famous Dark Night Reserve to capture the night skies and the stars.

But it was he who almost ended up being captured by the armed gardai who were following standard emergency protocols.

2 A walker believed the photographer was a sniper and alerted gardai

The large number of gardai came from units in Tralee and Killarney and immediately shut down the entire area.

They warned locals to stay away and residents in homes and mobile homes in the area said they were held behind roadblocks as gardai searched the beach for the “sniper”.

The snapper in the meantime had set up his equipment on the beach and had no idea of the alert and the search that was going on throughout the Derrynane/Caherdaniel area for him.

Locals said they were bewildered and in the end amused by the madness that ensued.

MOST READ IN NEWS CRACK THE CODE What the numbers on your driving licence mean - and ones that carry a fine BUFFER ZONE Speed cameras won’t fine you until you’re more than 10 per cent OVER the limit breakdown Ireland Most unreliable cars REVEALED - and the motor that makes us happiest vehicle measures How to book your car into the NCT test, what you need to do to prepare and what to do if your car fails? HIGHWAY TO L Driving test passes at lowest rate because of new harder theory questions STALLED START The ten most common reasons why learners fail their driving test

One man told the Kerryman newspaper that “the situation got more and more bizarre. At one stage gardai entered the pub in Caherdaniel looking for binoculars.

“There were none in the pub but a local man went off and got a set handing them over to the Gardai”.

Eventually the camera man was located, explained what he was doing and with no sign of a high powered rifle in sight or indeed a possible target, the alert was stood down.