The normally sleepy village of Somerset was a hive of activity at noon on Saturday as rumours of a supposed tidal wave spread like wildfire.

Families began fleeing their homes, shops closed for business and Police officers directed traffic east while urging village residents to make for higher ground.

By 12.30 p.m. only a handful of perplexed-looking people remained on Mangrove Bay Road, staring intently out to sea and trying to make calls on their cell phones.

Earlier that day, two cyclists had stopped off at the Salt Rock Grill after spotting what appeared to them to be an ominous-looking horizon.

Restaurant owner Ronnie Thorne said the pair came in shortly after 11 a.m. with a genuine fear that the West End was about to be wiped out by a "monster wave".

"They said that they were concerned because it looked like there was a big wave coming this way," he said. "The whole area from King's Point to Teddy Tucker's House, the whole horizon, all you could see was white, where the waves were rolling."

Mr. Thorne eventually decided to dial 911 to see if anyone else had noticed the waves. "They said they had received another call previous to that and they were looking into it," he said. "I tried calling Harbour Radio and I couldn't get an answer. Then I called the Marine Police and their phones were ringing off the hook. At that point, everything went crazy. The Police got people off Watford Bridge that were fishing and they were telling people to evacuate from Dockyard."

Restaurant staff climbed the nearest hill while Mr. Thorne continued to make calls, quickly discovering that it was a false alarm.

He opened up the restaurant and headed outside where he was stunned to see vehicles whizzing past towards the east. "There were lots of people with babies on their bikes and no helmets," he said.

Mr. Thorne said he didn't regret making the emergency call. "It's better to be safe than sorry. Being a Bermudian you should know the chances of a tidal wave hitting are slim.

"But I thought if it was a freak wave or a monster wave that we should certainly get out of here and I notified the authorities and it just escalated so nobody was sure."

Further east along Mangrove Bay Road, the Country Squire pub also closed after a call from Salt Rock. Bartender Kelly Symonds said: "The manager over there told us that we should evacuate because there was a big wave headed this way and because of the low-down bar here that's what we did.

"There was only a half a dozen people here plus a staff of about six. We got them out and then I made some phone calls to find out whether it was true or not.

"The Police came and they were directing traffic from the area but nobody like the Police or anybody with authority came to tell us that we needed to get to high ground."

Across the road, Brenda Wingood, manager of Boyle & Son shoe store, saw a commotion going on outside but stayed calm and kept the shop open.

"Nobody told us anything; we just used our own minds," she said. "There was a lot of excitement going on and Police cars going up and down. A woman came running along screaming. There was a little bit of panic.

"I didn't think nothing of it. We just stayed calm and then everybody just came back and traffic started moving."

Mother-of-three Makiba Ahearn, 32, was at home in Somerset when she heard someone calling out on the street that there was a tidal wave coming.

"I was just thinking, we've got to get to the highest point," she said. "It was kind of disturbing that people were driving a little bit crazy. One person stopped to ask us what was happening and then they just sped off. Everybody was driving across us. We were trying to get out of the area but nobody was stopping to give us a ride."

Dorcas Roberts, an environmental conservation officer at the National Trust, was leading a team of about ten volunteers doing conservation day at the Gladys Morrell Nature Reserve, off East Shore Road, Somerset, when she got a phone call.

"They said there was a tidal wave coming and to get to the highest ground," she said. "I was genuinely scared because we weren't that high off the ground there.

"I could see the wave and, although it sounded exceptionally unlikely, when you see it with your own eyes you are like: 'I'm going up that hill'."

For many, the panic sweeping the West End passed them by. Expectant mum Laura Sweet, 31, of Sound View Road, Somerset, said she was indoors the whole time and knew nothing. She questioned why Police didn't knock on doors and use a loudhailer to alert residents to the potential danger.

"We didn't hear a dicky bird," she said. "It could have been really serious but we would have known nothing about it."

Meanwhile, for fishermen at Ely's Harbour it was business as usual. The high waves did not worry Ian Card, 34, who put a jokey sign on the roadside advertising "tidal wave special" tuna and wahoo.

"Every year when you get bad weather for a couple of days it looks like there is a giant wave coming," he said. "For 40 minutes we watched traffic going east. We saw people come out of houses, running into their cars and leaving. There were five or six or seven people in a car.

"Somebody was very irresponsible for taking on poor information and passing it on."