A tiny French village has woken up to discover a gaping hole in front of its church, the latest of many dug by seekers of a mythical treasure trove.

Rennes-le-Château has a population of only 70, but the story that a priest buried a trove of gold coins and gems there at the end of the 19th century has spread across France.

The village near Carcassonne, 55 miles southeast of the southern city of Toulouse, became a magnet for treasure-hunters after several books recounted various versions of the myth.

The mayor was forced to ban unauthorised digging as far back as 1960 after complaints that Rennes-le-Château was starting to look “like a Swiss cheese” - but to little effect.

The priest, François-Bérenger Saunière, is also credited with a role in the conspiracy theories raised in Dan Brown’s best-seller, The Da Vinci Code. One of the novel’s main characters, Jacques Saunière, is named after him.

Fewer treasure-hunters have been sighted in the village in recent years, but the new hole has raised fears that it is about to be swamped by a fresh wave of unwanted guests armed with shovels or dynamite.

Marcel Captier, a deputy mayor, said: “We don’t want to find ourselves with swarms of treasure-hunters again.”