More than 100 people were trapped inside celebrated author Agatha Christie's home in Devon for several hours after a fallen tree blocked a nearby road.
Visitors and staff were unable to leave the grounds of the National Trust property for hours on Friday in a situation straight out of one of the author’s novels.
The Greenway house in the coastal town of Brixham is the former holiday home of Christie, who died in 1976.
The National Trust in a statement said the fallen tree was "blocking any traffic entering or exiting the area". "We are working closely with police and highways to get this resolved as quickly as possible."
The police and highways officers rushed to remove the large tree that had fallen into a single-track road.
A message on the National Trust website read: “Greenway is currently closed with no access to or from the site due to a fallen tree. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”
Caroline Heaven, who visited the house on Friday, said she arrived at about 11.30am for a day trip and was stuck with more than 100 others.
"I think what's happened is a tree, quite a big tree, has fallen down on the main road. There is only one road in and out of Greenway," she told Devon Live.
English writer Dame Agatha Christie, at work on a typewriter in March 1946 in her home, Greenway House, in Devon— (AFP/Getty Images)
“It’s a shame really,” she added.
"It's not on Greenway's property so it's the highways people that are responsible for it. They haven't even turned up yet.
"They are doing a great job, they are giving us free tea's and things. It's a bit bleak," she said, adding that she passed her time by playing a game of croquet.
Eventually, after a few hours, the fallen tree was removed from the road, which cleared the path for the visitors to leave the author’s house.
