A body believed to be one of the two British hikers who went missing in the Dolomites at the start of the year has been found, local rescue services have said.
Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Sam Harris, 35, have not been seen or heard from since 1 January, as they prepared to go on a hike in the Trentino mountain region of northern Italy. They later missed their return flight to London on 6 January, sparking an urgent search and rescue operation. They had not checked into their flight either.
Italy’s alpine rescue services said a body was found “unfortunately lifeless, buried under the snow” following the resumption of a helicopter search on Wednesday morning.
The body was discovered in a high-altitude area where a phone signal was last recorded from one of the men. A second body has not yet been recovered, nor has the identity of the first body been confirmed.
“The ground teams of the Soccorso Alpino airlifted in the morning … to an altitude of approximately 2,600 metres to conduct ground searches and snow probing in the area identified as a priority thanks to a track recorded on the phone of one of the two mountaineers,” a statement read.
“They have found one of the bodies, sadly deceased, buried under the snow. The dynamics of the accident are under evaluation. The search for the second mountaineer continues on the ground, with the deployment of Soccorso Alpino’s avalanche-trained canine units.”
The families of the two men, who have traveled to Italy, have already been informed and are being supported by a team of psychologists.
The last known location of the two hikers was near a mountain hut called Casina Dosson, close to the town of Tione Di Trento, near Riva Del Garda, on Lake Garda. The pair had sent a video message to their families from the hut ahead of plans to hike a 3,000 metre peak. They said in the video that they planned to leave their packs at this hut ahead of a hike.
The rescue team issued an update earlier on Wednesday morning saying the men’s backpacks and equipment were found during a search of the hut they are believed to have sheltered at.
Joseph Sheppard, a close friend of both Mr Ziriat and Mr Harris, and who was supposed to join them on their hike but was unable to in the end due to an injury, told The Independent on Tuesday that he was “scared” for their lives.
He said he had expected that they wouldn’t be in regular contact while on the hike as there wouldn’t be much signal and their phone batteries would die, but his worries intensified when he found out they didn’t make their flight back to London.
Mr Ziriat’s girlfriend and friends of the hikers, including Mr Sheppard, had flown to Italy to help coordinate the search with local authorities.
They managed to log into Mr Ziriat’s email, finding a route the two experienced hikers had discussed as their possible route, but there was little information beyond that concerning their whereabouts.
Helicopters had been used to search the Casina Dosson mountain hut and a second refuge in the area.
