Police are searching for a German tourist who went missing from her hotel on the Thai holiday island of Phuket.

Barbara Elisabeth Monika Glag Lange, 76, told guests ‘she was going for a walk to a house on a mountain’ when she was last seen on May 9.

Officers believed that the pensioner could not remember her way back to her hotel as a similar incident happened earlier this month when she was lost on nearby Nai Yang beach.

Police said that Barbara had been staying at the Maikhao Palm Beach Resort. She was seen on CCTV leaving her room just after 8 am before walking along a nearby road towards woodland.

A search and rescue team was deployed for Barbara, who reportedly has Alzheimer’s disease.

Police have joined with local government officials, wildlife rangers and volunteer rescue teams to try and find the elderly woman.

Tourist police have also been trying to trace her location by interviewing locals and other holidaymakers but so far without success. Regional police have also been called in to help the efforts.

Thalang district police chief Bancha Tannin said: ‘The last person who believes they talked with Barbara before she had gone missing told us that the woman said she was going for a walk to a house on a mountain.

'All the possible areas are being searched including beaches and forests. It's important to find the tourist as soon as possible as she may not have supplies of food and water.'

The holidaymaker was wearing a blue jacket with a white shirt and black trousers on the day she was reported missing by the hotel staff. A search and rescue operation is still ongoing for the woman.

Another German tourist also went missing last week. Leon Isiman Samuels, 21, had to be rescued after he was trapped between two large rocks when he decided to walk from the airport to his hotel upon arriving by taking a ‘shortcut’ in a forest next to Nai Thon beach.