The girls got lost near the Blacksmith's Anvil. Photo: Jeremy Bolwell CC-BY-SA-2.0

A group of teenagers on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition was rescued after getting lost on a Brecon Beacons mountainside.

The four girls from south London failed to turn up after setting out for a walk in the Black Mountains.

The girls put up their tent and sheltered when they realised they were lost.

Longtown Mountain Rescue Team was called out in the early hours of Monday after being alerted by Gwent Police.

The youth club group had last been seen at 10.30am on Sunday morning on Rhos Dirion, east of Talgarth, near the Wales-England border.

They became disoriented in low cloud and mist near Blacksmith’s Anvil rock, above Capel-y-ffin, 5km (3 miles) to the South-East.

Luke Lewis, deputy team leader of Abergavenny-based Longtown MRT, said: “It was wet and windy up there and when the girls realised they were lost and had no phone signal they put up a tent for shelter.

“They waited for help to come and because the instructors were able to give us a detailed description of their route it made the search a lot easier.

“We found them at 3.30am. They were cold, tired, frightened and a long way up, but it could have been a lot worse.

“We walked them down off the hill and reunited them with the rest of their party.”