A university exercise sparked panic on Dundee Law when locals spotted what appeared to be scenes of crime officers combing a murder scene.
Panicked residents feared the worst after a wooded area to the hill’s west was sealed off with police tape.
Scenes of crime officers were also spotted by concerned walkers, who were afraid that a serious crime had been committed.
However, The Courier established that the operation was, in fact, a Dundee University research exercise, designed to give budding forensic scientists a taste of deduction.
The man who sparked the alert said: “There’s a major police operation on the western slopes of the Law. There are scenes of crime officers everywhere.
“They seem to have sealed off a wooded section with tape and are combing the ground.
“They are also taking photographs of the area they have sealed off. It looks very serious.”
Police Scotland, Tayside Division, confirmed they were not conducting an operation at the Law and reassured members of the public that no crime had taken place.
It was just a teaching exercise with students from the university’s Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID).
CAHID enjoys an international reputation for teaching forensic sciences and its experts, including Professor Sue Black, are regularly called upon to assist with crime investigations around the world.
A university spokesman said that the activity was part of a “learning and teaching” programme.
The Law has been the scene of a number of gruesome crimes, including one perpetrated by the so-called Law Killer Alistair Thompson.
Thompson was sentenced to life in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh in 1993 for dismembering a man and dumping his body on the hill.
Thompson protested his innocence, claiming he had only disposed of the body parts on behalf of two Glasgow “heavies”.
Confined to Perth Prison, Thompson died in December 2011, aged 61.