TOKYO (AFP) - Firefighters called to a report that a plane had smashed into a cliff in northern Japan found the wreckage to be nothing more than a clump of flowers in full bloom.

Police in Akita raised the alarm after a call from a member of the public saying that a Cessna - a light aircraft - appeared to have crashed.

"We sent six fire trucks as well as three medical rescue vehicles," a spokesman for Akita City fire brigade said.

"But it turned out to be a cluster of white flowers. We have pulled out of the area now."