A woman passing by the St Elizabeth church in Kassel, Hesse, early on Monday panicked when she saw a figure standing, arms stretched, on scaffolding built around the church’s tower.

An 18-strong team of firemen arrived, ready to spring into action, local paper the Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine Zeitung reported. But what they found was not a person in need, but a life-size statue inside the frame of the modern church tower.