LONDON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife left their eight-year-old daughter in a countryside pub by mistake after lunch on Sunday, according to reports.

Cameron rushed back minutes later to pick her up, the tabloid Sun newspaper reported. 

Nancy had gone to the bathroom when rides were being organized to return home, the newspaper said. 

The prime minister's office said Cameron and his wife Samantha were "distraught" when they realized Nancy wasn't with them, according to the BBC.

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The Camerons had been having Sunday lunch with two other families near the prime minister's country home, according to reports. The prime minister went home in one car thinking that Nancy was with his wife and two other children in a second car, the Sun reported. 

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The child, who was looked after by staff at the 16th-century pub after her parents had left, was separated from her family for 15 minutes, the Sun reported. 

The Sun quoted a pub "insider" as saying: "You'd have thought someone would have done a headcount or something."

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The incident, which was widely reported in the British media, could prove especially embarrassing for the Conservative leader as it came just a day before the government relaunched a so-called troubled families program. The government says 120,000 troubled families are at the root of high amounts of crime and social disorder throughout the country.

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