Last weekend in the mountainous Austrian state of Vorarlberg, 400 gnomes disappeared. Nobody knows where they have gone. But everyone knows it's down to politics.

With regional elections set for September 21, the left-wing Social Democratic Party ordered 20,000 gnomes called "Coolmen" earlier this year. The gnomes, toting sunglasses and campaign signs, were the party's last-ditch effort to prevent an electoral defeat in Vorarlberg. About 400 of the gnomes were attached to lamp posts on Saturday as alternatives to traditional posters, but their mass disappearance by Sunday morning was conspicuous.

"I suspect our rival party OeVP [the Austrian People's Party] to have removed the gnomes," local Social Democratic Party leader Michael Ritsch said on Tuesday. Mr Ritsch has filed a complaint, and the state's police forces have launched an investigation.

Speaking to Austrian public broadcaster ORF, the local leadership of the OeVP party denied the allegations. The party's local general manager said people who levelled such unfounded accusations were no better than the actual gnome thieves.

But Mr Ritsch persists with his accusations. "All of our gnomes are 40 centimetres tall. The thieves must have needed more than just one truck to steal them," he said.