A body has been found during the hunt for two British hikers who went missing in Italy’s Dolomites, rescuers have confirmed.
Aziz Ziriat, 36, and his friend Samuel Harris, 35, both from London, were hiking in the Dolomites in northern Italy but have not been heard from since 2.20pm on New Year’s Day.
In a video to friends before they disappeared, they had detailed plans to climb a 10,000-foot mountain on January 1.
But their family and friends became concerned when the two explorers missed their flight to Britain on January 6 and alerted Italian authorities, who launched an urgent search hampered by heavy snow and strong winds.
The last known location of Mr Ziriat, who works for Crystal Palace’s Palace for Life foundation, and Mr Harris was near a hut called Casina Dosson, near the town of Tione Di Trento, near Riva del Garda, on Lake Garda.
The Italian Alpine Rescue Service resumed the search by helicopter on Wednesday morning in improved weather conditions and tragically confirmed that a body had been found at around 2,600 meters altitude.
A spokesperson for Italy’s CNSAS (National Alpine Cliff and Cave Rescue Corps) said ground teams found a body in the Passo di Conca area ‘sadly deceased, buried under snow’.
The rescue teams had searched the area after tracking a “phone from one of the two mountaineers.” They confirmed that the 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 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 became concerned when the two hikers (Mr Harris is pictured above) missed their flight to Britain on January 6 and alerted Italian authorities, who launched an urgent search.
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An investigation is underway 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 where they were believed to have taken refuge.
It comes after a video taken on the day they last heard from revealed they planned to leave their luggage for a day before moving 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’.
Mrs Dimmock broke down in tears on Good Morning Britain this morning, saying: ‘There are so many different possibilities and scenarios, that’s the hardest part. It doesn’t make sense and we don’t know what decisions they made.”
She added: “They are really experienced, they have been in very tough conditions.
“This trip they planned to go from hut to hut and, weather permitting, they would sleep outside.
“They had planned a nice route that would take them to Lake Garda and spend some time there before coming back.”
Friends of the hikers announced this morning that helicopters were targeting a ‘very specific area’ this morning, including two huts.
In a separate interview with the BBC, Ms Dimmock said: ‘They wanted to go for a New Year’s walk. They wanted to go from hut to hut through the Dolomites.
“They were planning to go off-grid, so that’s not unexpected at all.
Rescuers confirmed the search for the second mountaineer would continue and that the families of both men had been informed
The circumstances of the incident are under investigation, rescuers said
Rescuers have released photos of their search for two missing hikers in the Dolomites
Aziz made a video before he and Samuel left, which was shared with MailOnline
An image of the mountain hut where the men stayed was included in Aziz’s video
‘I think they wanted to have a few nights where they were in nature and fresh air and sleeping in the wild. They have all the gear and they’ve been on hikes before.
“But they also wanted to go into the huts and make a fire and drink red wine because it was New Year’s, which they did, because at one point he sent me a message and he was carrying a log up the mountain to one of the huts. .’
She added: “I know they reached the hut and they were drinking red wine, but he said it was freezing.”
She said she last spoke to Mr Ziriat at around 10am GMT on New Year’s Day.
“He sent a few pictures of the mountains and a few of himself,” she said. “He said his phone was about to die, but he would write me back soon.”
She said that a few hours later, her messages were not received by Mr. Ziriat’s phone.
“His phone was obviously dead at that point, or he was out of range,” she said.
Desperate friends of the missing couple have also revealed the moment their GPS tracker broke down.
Joseph Sheppard, a friend of Mr Ziriat who is helping to coordinate the rescue, told The Times: ‘(Ziriat and Harris) were in a specific rifugio (shelter) and it looked like they were going (trying) to go to the next refugio , which was on the other side of a mountain. So they had to go up once and down again.
“Their tracking system followed them up the mountain from the rifugio. It looks like they’ve pretty much reached the top and then the tracking stops.”
Bex Dimmock (center) was visibly emotional as she spoke about the search for her boyfriend Aziz Ziriat on Wednesday morning
Descriptions of the Aziz and Samuel have been shared, including a photo of the clothes Sam was believed to be wearing
It comes after MailOnline revealed the two missing British men had captured footage of their plans to climb 3,000 meter Italian mountains on New Year’s Day before disappearing.
In the video, Mr Ziriat says the couple will leave their usual large backpacks at home.
The 36-year-old explained that he and Mr Harris had been ‘dragging’ them up and down the valleys for the last two days of the trip.
Standing outside the mountain hut in his flip-flops, Mr. Ziriat says into the camera, “Happy New Year! Waking up to a lovely sun, blue sky.
“There hasn’t been a cloud in the sky since we got here, which is a little nerve-wracking, but also a joke.”
“I want to attack this today, go to the three thousand bits over there.”
‘We are looking forward to a day of wandering around and are not taking our belongings with us today. “For the past two days we’ve been trudging through this God forsaken valley, another day of wandering before we trudge to the next valley,” he adds in an extended version of the clip.
He also looks at the ‘World War I bunker’ they had stayed in before they went missing.
Before a body was found, friend Joe Stone said: “They are experienced hikers and they go a few times a year. Not surprisingly, they had no signal as they liked to go off the grid. However, alarm bells went off when they failed to show up for their flight on January 6.
‘Helicopters are now searching two specific locations: two refuge huts. We think this is the best chance for success.
“We are all waiting with anticipation and the next few hours are crucial.”
Mr Ziriat, who is said to be 6ft tall, was a student at the University of Brighton, while Mr Harris, who is 6ft tall, went to Oxford Brookes.
Both attended Teddington School in Teddington in south-west London.