A 4x4 vehicle has been abandoned near the summit of Mount Snowdon in north Wales for the second time in a month.

The Vauxhall Frontera is neatly parked next to the visitors' centre at the highest peak in England and Wales.

National park bosses, police, mountain rescue teams and the Snowdon Mountain Railway Company are working out the best way to get the vehicle down.

It is thought that the vehicle is the same one that was left on the mountain on 3 September. Then the car was loaded on to a truck and taken down the mountain on the railway.

Following that incident, the alleged owner of the vehicle, Craig Williams, 39, was arrested and is due in court charged with dangerous driving next week.

But the 4x4 reappeared next to the £8m visitor centre Hafod Eryri on Thursday morning.

Witnesses have said the car had a sign placed in the windscreen that claimed it was to be sold on an internet auction site in aid of the local mountain rescue teams.

Ian Henderson, secretary of Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team, said: "Even if it is auctioned for the charity we could not accept the donation as this the result of an illegal act.

"Clearly we are unhappy that a car was driven up Snowdon and it presents all the authorities and those who care about the mountain with a very serious problem — how to remove it safely.

"Snowdon is a mountain for all of us to enjoy and it is not a playground for motorists."

Snowdonia National Park Authority chief executive, Aneurin Phillips, said: "This irresponsible behaviour is totally unacceptable and I urge the police to prosecute the offender and impound and dispose of the vehicle."

A spokesman for the park said removing the vehicle this time would be even trickier. It had been parked next to the railway line last time, making it relatively easy to load on to a truck.

This time it has been driven higher across steep, rocky ground. Getting it back down to the railway is likely to be even more difficult and dangerous.

Park officials are particularly angry because the good weather means that the mountain is particularly busy.

Snowdon stands at 1,085m (3,560 feet). In Welsh, Snowdon used to be called Yr Wyddfa Fawr (the Great Tomb or the Great Throne) or Carnedd y Cawr (the Cairn of the Giant). Nowadays it is simply called Yr Wyddfa.