A Scots teenager died from heatstroke in Australia after police "struggled to understand his father's accent" when he called for help.

Ewan Williamson, 14, collapsed while walking a remote trail in west Australia's Cape Range National Park in December 2012.

His father Gordon Williamson, from Largs in North Ayrshire, told an inquest he called for help but it was delayed as operators "didn't make a lot of effort to try to understand" him.

The seriousness of the call was also downgraded meaning it took emergency services nearly an hour to respond, Western Australia's Coroner's Court heard.

Ewan travelled to Australia to spend Christmas  with his father when the pair went on a hike through Badjirrajirra Creek. They left at around 10am, the hottest time of the day.

The teenager started to feel faint shortly after they had started the walk and his father found him shade and gave him some water.

Mr Williamson told the Western Australia Coroner’s Court that when his son was unable to walk the last 400m to the car, he left him in shade and went to his vehicle to phone emergency services at 2pm.

Ewan became so ill he could not walk back to the car after temperatures hit 36C. Police arrived but did not bring a stretcher so it took longer to carry him to safety. He was taken to hospital but died later that evening.

His father said "it all seemed to take so long", the Western Australia Today reported.