A man dressed as an executioner with a prop sword has triggered a police operation in the old town area of Esslingen in the south-west of Germany.
Witnesses were obviously worried that an act of violence was imminent when they saw what turned out to be a performer on a medieval guided tour of the town, the police said on Saturday.
They alerted the police about a "masked man with a rifle," the police said.
Officers then partially cordoned off the market square where the man was spotted on Friday. The police were then able to track down the "executioner" in the cellar of a nearby house - and found that the man was in fact preparing for his tour of the city there.
