France has launched a special smartphone application to track a rocketing plague of ticks, which cause over 30,000 cases of Lyme disease par year and pose a threat to thousands of British holidaymakers who take to the French countryside in summer.

Experts on Monday warned that growing numbers of disease-carrying ticks were "moving North" to Britain and as far as Scotland due to warmer and wetter conditions linked to climate change.

Lyme disease attacks the nervous system. If left untreated it can lead to heart problems, temporary facial paralysis, seizures or even death. Symptoms can include a bull’s eye red shaped rash, tiredness, muscle pain and headaches. It is transmitted by ticks when they suck human blood.

Faced with a dramatic surge in the number of cases, which have tripled in the past decade, experts at the French Institute for Agricultural Research, INRA, have launched an application called Signalement TIQUES - French for "tick alert".