A hiker in the Austrian Alps died when a herd of cows charged her, while her two daughters survived with injuries, police said Thursday.

Fatal cow attacks are rare in the nation of nine million, whose mountains are a popular tourist attraction where in the summer cow herds graze freely.

The woman was on a hike with her two daughters, aged 20 and 23, and two small dogs on Wednesday, her 40th birthday, in the Salzburg region when the cow herd charged, regional police said.

While she died at the scene, her daughters managed to get away from the herd after being injured, with one of them making an emergency call.

"It is still not clear what happened," a police spokeswoman told AFP.

She said police had yet to get more details from the two daughters who were hospitalised.

Emergency service personnel cited by Austrian media warned of the danger of dogs getting near cows.

"Cows have a very strongly developed maternal instinct and defend their calves," said an emergency service source cited by news agency APA.

In 2017, an Austrian who was hiking with a friend and their dogs was fatally gored in the Tyrol region.

In 2014, a German holidaymaker was trampled to death by cows also in Tyrol.

In that case, a court ordered the cows' owner in 2019 to compensate the German woman's family as he had failed to fence off the grazing land and to put up enough warning signs.

The verdict angered farmers and sparked a nationwide debate.

A higher court later ruled the 45-year-old who was hiking with her dog was also partly responsible, slashing the compensation in half.

Following the outcry over the case, the government published a "code of conduct" for hikers.

The guidelines include keeping a distance from cows and walking dogs on a short lead but unleashing them in case of attack.