The sale of two alpine mountains has been suspended after a national outcry.

Austria’s government had put the twin peaks up for sale with an asking price of €121,000 (£107,000).

But, following an avalanche of protest calls, the agency handling the sale of the two eastern Tyrol mountains has suspended the sale, which was due to go ahead on 8 July.

An agency spokesman Ernst Eichinger said: “We have suspended the sale to evaluate alternative possibilities.” Any sale would be likely to involve only Austrian institutions, he said.

Nationalists had objected to the sale of the 2,600m Rosskopf and the 2,700m Grosse Kinigat.

Gerhard Hausser, of the right-wing FPO party, said the proposed deal would be ‘a cheap step toward the sell-out of our homeland’.