A body has been found in the hunt for two British hikers who went missing in the Italian Dolomite mountains, rescuers have confirmed.
Aziz Ziriat, 36, and his friend Samuel Harris, 35, both from London, were hiking in the Dolomites in northern Italy but they have not been heard from since 2.20pm on New Year’s Day.
In a video to friends before they vanished, they had detailed plans to scale a 3,000-metre mountain on January 1.
But their family and friends became concerned when the two explorers missed their flights back to Britain on January 6 and alerted Italian authorities, who launched an urgent search, which has been hampered by heavy snow and strong winds.
The last kmown location of Mr Ziriat, who works for Crystal Palace’s Palace for Life foundation, and Mr Harris was close to a hut called Casina Dosson, which is near the town of Tione Di Trento, near Riva del Garda, on Lake Garda.
Italy’s alpine rescue service resumed a helicopter search on Wednesday morning amid improved weather conditions and tragically confirmed a body was found at around 2,600m.
A spokesperson for Italy’s CNSAS (The National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps) said ground teams found a body in the area of Passo di Conca ‘sadly deceased, buried under the snow’.
The rescue teams had been searching the area after tracking a ‘phone of one of the two mountaineers’. They confirmed a search for the second mountaineer would continue and that the families of both men had been informed.
Aziz Ziriat (left), 36, and his friend Samuel Harris, 35, both from London, were hiking in the Dolomites in northern Italy but they have not been heard from since 2.20pm on New Year’s Day
Aziz Ziriat (pictured), 36, works for Crystal Palace’s Palace for Life foundation
Their family and friends got concerned when the two hikers (Mr Harris is pictured above) missed their flights back to Britain on January 6 and alerted Italian authorities, who launched an urgent search
An investigation is under way into the circumstances of the incident, the spokesperson said.
Earlier on Wednesday, rescuers said the men’s backpacks and equipment were found during a search of a bivouac hut they are believed to have taken refuge in.
It comes after a video taken on the day they were last heard from revealed they had planned to leave their packs for a day before they moved to the next valley.
The discovery of a body comes just hours after Mr Ziriat’s girlfriend, Bex Dimmock, said their disappearance ‘just doesn’t make sense’.
Breaking down in tears on Good Morning Britain, Ms Dimmock said this morning: ‘There’s just so many different possibilities and scenarios, that’s the hardest thing. It doesn’t make sense and we don’t know what decisions they have made.’
She added: ‘They are really experienced, they have been to some really harsh conditions.
‘This trip, they had a plan to go hut to hut and if the weather permitted they would sleep outside.
‘They did have a nice route planned where they would end up in Lake Garda and have some time in that town before coming back.’
Friends of the hikers revealed this morning that helicopters were focusing on a ‘very specific area’ this morning, including two huts.
In a separate interview with the BBC, Ms Dimmock said: ‘They wanted to do a New Year’s hike. They wanted to go from hut to hut throughout the Dolomites.
‘They were planning on going off-grid, so that’s not unexpected at all.
Rescuers confirmed a search for the second mountaineer would continue and that the families of both men had been informed
An investigation is under way into the circumstances of the incident, rescuers said
Rescuers have released pictures of their search for the two missing hikers in the Dolomites
Aziz snapped a video before he and Samuel set off – which was shared with MailOnline
An image of the mountain hut where the men where staying that was included in Aziz’s video
‘I think they wanted to have some nights where they were out in nature and in fresh air and sleeping in the wild. They have all the gear and they’ve done hikes before.
‘But they also wanted to get into the huts and have fires and drink red wine because it was New Year’s, which they did do, because he did message me at one point and he was carrying a log up the mountain to one of the huts.’
She added: ‘I know they made it to the hut, and they were drinking red wine, but he said it was freezing.’
She said she last spoke to Mr Ziriat at about 10:00 GMT on New Year’s Day.
‘He sent some photos of the mountains and a couple of himself,’ she said. ‘He said his phone was about to die but he would write back to me properly soon.’
She said a few hours later, her messages were not being received by Mr Ziriat’s phone.
‘His phone had obviously died at that point, or he was out of range,’ she said.
Desperate friends of the missing pair have also revealed the moment their GPS tracker went dead.
Joseph Sheppard, a friend of Mr Ziriat, who is helping to co-ordinate the rescue, told The Times: ‘[Ziriat and Harris] were at a specific rifugio [shelter] and they looked like they were going to [try] and make it to the next refugio, which was on the other side of a mountain. So they had to go up one and down again.
‘Their tracking [system] followed them from the rifugio up the mountain, it looks like they pretty much got to the peak of it and then the tracking stops.’
Bex Dimmock (middle) was visibly emotional as she spoke about the search for her boyfriend Aziz Ziriat on Wednesday morning
Descriptions have been shared of the Aziz and Samuel, including a picture of the clothes Sam is believed to have been wearing
It comes after MailOnline revealed the two missing British men snapped footage revealing their plans to scale 3,000-metre Italian mountains on New Year’s Day before they vanished.
In the video, Mr Ziriat says the pair are going to leave their usual large packs at home.
The 36-year-old explained he and Mr Harris had been ‘lugging’ them up and down the valleys for the past two days of the trip.
Speaking into the camera as he stands outside the mountain hut in his flip-flops, Mr Ziriat says: ‘Happy New Year! Woken up to some delightful sunshine, blue skies.
‘There has not been a cloud in the sky since we got here, which is slightly unnerving but also quite jokes.’
‘I want to attack this today, get up into the some of the 3,000 bits which are up yonder.’
‘Looking forward to a day scampering, we are not taking our packs today, for the last two days lugging up this God-forsaken valley, another day frolicking before schlepping over to the next valley,’ he adds in an extended version of clip.
He also pans to the ‘World War One bunker’ they had stayed in before going missing.
Before a body was located, friend Joe Stone said: ‘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 on January 6.
‘Helicopters are now searching two specific locations – two refuge huts. We think that’s going to be the best chance of success.
‘We’re all waiting anxiously and the next few hours are crucial.’
Mr Ziriat, who is described as being 6ft 3in, was a student at the University of Brighton, while Mr Harris, who is 5ft 11in, went to Oxford Brookes.
Both attended Teddington School in Teddington in south-west London.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
