A hotel in Waterford had to be evacuated during a wedding yesterday (Wednesday) following a bomb scare.

Just before nine o’clock a caller rang 999 to say pipe bombs had been left in the toilets at Treacy’s Hotel on the Quay.

Gardai promptly arrived and hotel management set off the fire alarm to evacuate the hotel.

There were 224 people in the hotel at the time.

John Treacy, Director and General Manager of the hotel said it took just seven minutes to get everyone out of the hotel.

A thorough search of the hotel from top to bottom was then conducted but nothing was found.

A wedding was taking place at the time, John said although the bride was a bit upset, the wedding party was very understanding:

“We were fairly sure it was a hoax phonecall, but safety of human life is our number one priority. I had to make sure everyone was safe, it’d be worse if something was here and I didn’t clear the premises.

They were fine with it..the bride was upset but she was very happy coming back in.”

John said it was a frustrating event:

“It was annoying on the hotel in a way. I went around and talked to every guest that I could last night and the ones that got me were the young children – there was a 5 year old little boy and he asked me if it was going to happen again, and he was really worried..and that makes me angry.”