Teenagers trapped in Pyrenees snowstorm rescued after making SOS phone call home

The pair, both 19, came close to succumbing to hypothermia during a snowstorm on the French-Spanish border, close to a spot where another Englishman died.

Edward Broad and a friend who has not been named were forced to huddle shivering in sleeping bags after being caught out by the suddenness of the storm.

But they raised the alarm by phoning their parents in Wimbledon, South-West London, from the isolated area on the French-Spanish border.

Emergency services from France and Spain fought through the treacherous conditions to find them on Tuesday.

The young men had to spend a night in hospital but were released yesterday to continue their bicycling pilgrimage to the northern Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela.

The route, known as the Camino, has been travelled by Christians since medieval times.

A spokesman for the clinic in St Jean Pied de Port, in France, where they were treated, said: "When they arrived here they were in a very bad way, but both are young and they were treated swiftly and efficiently."

The teenagers, who are Christians, were on a three-week trip. Edward's mother Margaret said her son had called her from the mountainside and told her not to worry.

"He told me everything was fine but I was obviously extremely concerned," she said.

"My son's friend had called his parents who had called the police. I knew the emergency services were doing their best to reach them but I was still really worried, as any mother would be.

"There is a certain feeling of helplessness when you're stuck in Wimbledon."

The area where the pair got into trouble, at 4,000ft, is close to the spot where City banker Chris Phillips, 50, was caught in a blizzard a year ago.

He died later in hospital.