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, Italy’s alpine rescue service has 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.
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 search had been hampered by bad weather on Tuesday.
The body was discovered in a high-altitude area where a phone signal was last recorded from one of the men. The indentity of the body has not yet been officially comfirmed.
“The ground teams of the Soccorso Alpino [Alpine Rescue] 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 from the rescue service 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 of the discovery of the body 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 in northern Italy. 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, have 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.
Joe Stone, a university friend of Mr Ziriat, told the PA news agency: “They are experienced hikers and they go a couple of times a year. It wasn’t surprising that they had no signal as they like going off the grid. Alarm bells were raised though when they didn’t turn up for their flight.”
Mr Stone praised the public response and said they had seen a “nice side of humanity” since asking for help. He added: “The response from the local authorities has been fantastic and people from all walks of life have been trying to help, both in Italy and in the UK.”
