The British ambassador to Austria has described how he suffered the indignity of being chased by a wild boar through the woods near Vienna.

Leigh Turner told how he chanced upon a group of wild boar piglets while out walking, and had to take to his heels when a “massive” adult charged him.

As Her Majesty’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, Mr Turner is probably more used to being whisked through Hapsburg palaces to the elegant dinners and white tie balls of the Austrian capital.

But on this occasion, he wrote on his blog, he was forced to scramble to safety up a pile of wet tree trunks, injuring himself in the process.