Spain's King Juan Carlos I is under intense media fire for hunting elephants in Botswana while his country is being sucked back into the eurozone's financial crisis.

Spanish media pointed to the cost of his trip and criticised the lack of transparency of the Royal Household, three months after it promised to disclose its income following a corruption probe linked to the king's son-in-law.

The royal holiday last week would have remained secret if the king had not tripped on a step, fractured his hip and had to be flown back urgently to Madrid to undergo hip replacement surgery on Saturday morning.

In his annual Christmas message Juan Carlos had called on Spanish leaders to set a good example and, more recently, he said there were times when he could not sleep because of concern about Spain's youth unemployment problem.

One in two young people in Spain is listed as unemployed.

Last week he cancelled his regular weekly meeting with prime minister Mariano Rajoy because he had already left for Botswana, several newspapers said.

"It was an irresponsible trip, taken at the worst possible moment," the daily El Mundo said in an editorial.

"The image of a monarch hunting elephants in Africa at a time when the economic crisis in our country creates so many problems for the Spanish people is a very poor example."

Most Spanish dailies and TV channels on Sunday showed a picture of the king in front of a dead elephant, taken on a similar trip to Botswana in 2006.

The picture drew many internet and Twitter comments, some linking it to a Russian hunting trip in 2006 when the king was reported to have killed a bear which had been made drunk.

News of the king's latest trip came at a time when Spain's political leaders face growing social anger.

Support for Mr Rajoy fell sharply in April after his government announced deep spending cuts and health and education reforms to fight the sovereign debt crisis, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

Mr Rajoy, who visited the king on Sunday, said he would resume his duties gradually and would attend their weekly meeting next Friday.

"I saw him being very upbeat. He will recover very soon and resume his usual duties," Mr Rajoy told journalists outside Madrid's San Jose hospital where the king was being treated.

Reuters