A NOISE which sounded like "500 lorries in a field" rang out across the Lizard Peninsula this morning.

The mystery sound lasted for around four or five hours from 5.30am and it has left resident Steven Munden totally baffled.

He said: "I woke up my partner at around 5.30am and we went outside to listen to it. We drove to a higher vantage point near Grade Ruan Church but we couldn't see anything, even though it sounded like it was only 50 yards away.

"It was completely and mindbogglingly bizarre. It sounded like diesel engines, how a 747 (aeroplane) sounds when it goes overhead - but this stayed there for four and a half hours."

Steven, who lives on a farm near Kynance Garage, around halfway between the villages of Ruan Major and The Lizard on the A3083, said he called RNAS Culdrose and they were equally in the dark.

"I like to think I'm a logical person and I can't think of anything that it could have possibly been. I've lived in the same place since 2006 and I've never heard anything like it. It was like 500 lorries in a field."

Mr Munden added that the birds became particularly vocal when the sound first began.

Later on in the morning there was some helicopter activity which appeared to head towards the source of the sound.

He believes it was from somewhere between Cadgwith on the east coast down to Lizard Point, the southernmost tip of the county.

"Someone suggested it may be a ship's generator, but it just wouldn't be that loud. There was hardly any wind, so the sound wouldn't travel that far. It was an undulating sound that sometimes got louder. It was very weird and slightly unnerving," he added.