A mystery group of animal campaigners calling themselves the 'A-team' say they have braved molten lava flows to rescue dogs stranded on La Palma, putting up a sign to declare their mission success (pictured)

(AP) A mystery group of animal campaigners calling themselves the 'A-team' say they have braved molten lava flows to rescue dogs stranded on La Palma, Canary Islands.

A daring mission using nets flown in by drones had been planned by activists Leales.org to take place in the coming days.

But the group were perplexed after some of the dogs suddenly disappeared from the site they had been hiding surrounded by lava for the last few weeks.

Yesterday the mystery deepened as rescuers calling themselves the 'A-team' accessed the site, took the dogs and put up a sign confirming the animals were safe.

Leales.org confirmed a drone had spotted footprints in the area and that they had been sent an anonymous video.

They said that 'due to the incapacity and obstacles of the authorities, anonymous animal campaigners have accessed the area surrounded by solidified lava and have left a sign and have proceeded to rescue the hounds.'

Industrial drone operator Aerocameras, which had flown drones out to the site on Thursday only to find the dogs had vanished, said: 'After carrying out an exhaustive inspection of the exclusion zone where the dogs were supposed to be, our drones have found no trace of them,' confirming it was abandoning the mission.

For now, the status of the animals is unknown and 'anonymous animal owners' have been asked to make public videos of their status.

The drone in the video sent anonymously to Leales.org is a phantom 3 model, according to experts working to determine the origin of the video.

La Palma's volcano emergency committee is being urged to review their list of authorised drones to help identify the vigilantes.

'The animal rights platform suspects that the creator of the video has temperature recording capabilities and is perfectly aware of the most solidified or cold areas or safe conduits, where 'the anonymous' could pass through until the animals were removed, illegally skipping the cordoned off perimeters by the authorities,' said a spokesman.