A hike in the Austrian Alps went alarmingly off course for a party of tourists at the weekend when their guide allegedly got drunk and wandered off alone, leaving them lost in the mountains.

The 60-strong group from Hungary were forced to call mountain rescue services to help them find their way back to civilisation.

The hikers set off at around 3pm local time (2pm BST) on Saturday with an unqualified guide from a Hungarian trekking association to explore the Rax mountain range in eastern Austria, according to local police.

But around an hour later Austrian emergency services received a call from a distressed member of the group, who said he was lost with his daughter in the mountains.

The guide was drunk and had disappeared, he said.