A man who tried to walk from France to Spain to buy cheap cigarettes was rescued in the Pyrenees mountains - only to be fined for flouting anti-coronavirus regulations.

The man had initially set out by car on Saturday from Perpignan in southern France to La Jonquera in Spain, but was stopped at a checkpoint, and decided to make his way on foot across the mountain range that separates the two countries.

"He fell into a stream, in brambles, got lost and ended up contacting" the emergency services, a mountain unit of the gendarmerie police force in the Pyrenees-Orientales region said on Twitter on Sunday.

A helicopter was sent to rescue the man, "exhausted, shivering with cold and lost," it added.

After being brought safely back, the man was given the €135 fine for breaking the confinement rules under which French residents can leave their homes only for essential reasons, and then with a self-certified note stating their business.