A BODY has been discovered in the desperate search for two British men who went missing on a New Year’s Day mountain hike.
Fears grew after friends Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Samuel Harris, 35, failed to board their flight home after their holiday in the Italian Dolomites.
X formerly Twitter / @PalaceForLifeAziz Ziriat went missing in Italy[/caption]
HANDOUT/UNPIXSSam Harris, 35, has been missing since New Year’s Day[/caption]
soccorso alpino trentinoRescue crews found the body of a British hiker buried in the snow of the Italian alps[/caption]
Rescue crews uncovered a body buried in the snow of the mountains, Italians authorities revealed on Thursday.
The heartbreaking discovery was made on Wednesday morning after a helicopter search was resumed.
The pair were last heard from on 1 January when their phones either died or lost signal after sending messages and photos home.
A desperate hunt for the friends, from London, was ignited after the pair did not get on their flight home on January 6.
The first two days of the frantic search were hampered by heavy snowfall, fog, and avalanche warnings.
This teams first worrying update, earlier on Wednesday, was their discovery of the men’s backpacks and equipment in a hut they were believed to have stayed in.
Rescue crews revealed they followed Aziz and Sam’s last phone recordings to track a body.
They confirmed a search for the second mountaineer would continue and that the families of both men had been informed.
Their last known location was near a mountain hut called Casina Dosson, close to the town of Tione Di Trento, near Riva Del Garda, on Lake Garda.
The friends’ family members revealed Aziz and Sam were planning to go between huts in the mountain range on their New Year’s hike.
Rebecca Dimmock, the girlfriend of Aziz, called the pair “experienced hikers” but revealed she last spoke to her boyfriend around 10 am on New Year’s Day, according to BBC reports.
She said: “He said his phone was about to die but he would write back to me properly soon.”
Rebecca added: “I know they made it to the hut, and they were drinking red wine, but he said it was freezing.”
Family and friends of the pair flew out to the Italian region last night to help rescue efforts.
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