A man who abandoned his seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji in Japan after the boy complained of feeling tired while on a family hike has been reprimanded by local police.

A worker on Japan’s highest mountain discovered the child sitting alone on a bench near the sixth station of the Fujinomiya trail at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) on Thursday.

After inviting the boy to take shelter at the station, the worker called the police, who took the child into protective custody.

It emerged that he had told his father he was too tired to continue while they were hiking up the trail in the early hours of the morning.

The man, who was from Japan’s fourth-largest city, Nagoya, gave his son some snacks and a soft drink.

He then told him to wait for him before continuing his five-hour ascent to the summit with the child’s older brother, who had already gone on ahead. It would have taken him about eight hours to return, according to local reports.

By the time police officers managed to contact the boy’s father, he had ascended to the eighth station, a three-hour hike from where he had left his son.

They told him to turn back, and after reuniting him with his son reprimanded him for leaving the child alone on an active volcano.

“Even if it means having to give up on climbing the mountain together, leaving a child behind is unacceptable,” officers said, according to Japan Today.

Weather on the mountain, which has its own microclimate, is unpredictable and can change rapidly. Hypothermia poses a serious risk for hikers even in the summer.

The father is said to have apologised to the police, saying: “I made a rash decision, and I deeply regret it.”

Local police are urging hikers to consider the abilities and stamina of everyone in their group when planning an ascent on Mount Fuji, and to adjust their pace accordingly.