BERLIN (AP) — Emergency services were called to a landmark Hamburg church to fight a fire. All they found was a swarm of gnats.

News agency dpa reports that Hamburg's fire service said Tuesday it was called to the St. Michaelis church by a man who reported seeing white smoke rising from the tower.

Firefighters who rushed to the scene on Monday couldn't see any smoke. They combed the tower before finding the cause of the scare: a large swarm of small insects that apparently looked like smoke from the ground.

The Protestant church, often referred to by its nickname Michel, is one of the best-known landmarks in Germany's second-biggest city.