A nursery school was evacuated this week as a bomb disposal unit was called in to tackle a suspect device attached to a car parked nearby.

The driver of the car, John Wilton, a community nurse, had dropped his two daughters to school and was travelling towards Dobwalls when he heard a rattling noise coming from the rear of his car.

After pulling into the empty Looe Mills Eating House car park on the A38 he noticed a white plastic box strapped to his car.

John, who has a military background, left the area and contacted the Police from Manuscript, the picture and mirror framers. He said: 'The training I've had just took over, I saw the box and took it to be the worst, I saw Manuscript had lots of windows which could have been blown out if there was an explosion, and made for there to call the police and then told everyone to get out. The nursery around the back of the building was also evacuated.'

The Police received the call for assistance just after 9am and once the area was cordoned off and the situation evaluated the bomb disposal team was requested.

A plain white plastic box, about the size of a first aid kit, was located strapped to the car with cables ties behind the nearside rear wheel of the light blue 'E' registration Nissan Bluebird.

The contents of the box were 'disarmed' by the bomb disposal team. After the suspect device was disabled a member of the bomb disposal team donned a protective suit and checked the car. It was then impounded by the police for forensic examination. A police spokesperson has confirmed that the device was a hoax.

The twenty children at the Manuscript Day Nursery group were evacuated via the rear of the building and manager, Sue Flynn, asked Sarah Baker, of K T and M Baker Coaches, who had to come to Manuscript to collect her daughter, to bring two mini-buses, one driven by herself, the other by her father-in-law, Ken, to take the other children to a safe place where parents could collect their children.

Manager, Sue Flynn, said: 'Once it became clear what was happening out the front of the building we decided to get the parents to collect their children. The police didn't want the parents to collect their children from the main entrance as they would have had to drive past the cordoned off area. When we called Sarah Baker to collect her daughter we asked if she could bring along a minibus to get the children off the premises with as little traffic as possible. The children were told it was a 'mystery bus tour' and they enjoyed themselves immensely.'

Once the buses arrived at Moorswater Industrial Estate, Mole Valley Farmers Ltd car park was used as the safe pick up point for parents.

Sue added: 'Our nursery staff remained calm and professional under pressure and made what was an unusual and unpleasant situation into a fun adventure for the children, singing and playing games and keeping them happy and secure. The children were unaware there was anything wrong and enjoyed their mystery tour.'