The group which included two men and a woman, aged between 25 and 27, got lost while hiking in the mountains of Curral das Freiras, a parish in the interior of the island, in the municipality of Câmara de Lobos, and alerted the authorities on Thursday night.

Speaking to Lusa, the president of the IFCN, Manuel Filipe, said that at 8:30 pm two members of the Forest Police Force were mobilised, who spent the whole of Thursday night searching for the tourists, in an operation in which several members of the Câmara de Lobos Volunteer Firefighters also participated.

The searches continued throughout Friday and were made difficult due to the bad weather in the area, namely rain and fog, and also due to the fact that the group were in a remote location, called Pico Redondo, which is off any route or trail.

The group were brought back safely to Curral das Freiras on Friday around 5:00 pm, around 20 hours after the start of the operation, all three tourists were in good health and did not require medical assistance.