Items belonging to missing British hiker Aziz Ziriat have been found in the Italian Alps, close to where the body of his hiking partner Samuel Harris was discovered last week, rescue teams said Sunday.
More than 100 rescuers took part in Sunday’s operation, using shovels to dig into the snow across an area of around 5,500 square meters (18,000 square feet) at an altitude of around 2,400 meters (7,800 feet), according to a statement from Italy’s alpine rescue service.
“Snow depth varied from 50 centimeters (20 inches) to nearly two meters (6.6 feet) in wind-drifted accumulations,” the statement said.
The rescue service said more than 500 people, including seven dog units, were involved in the “complex” search operation.
Search operations will now be “temporarily suspended” to allow for changes in the environmental and snow conditions, adds the statement.
Ziriat, 36 and Harris, 35, were experienced hikers who had planned an excursion in the Adamello mountain range near Trento in northern Italy but went missing on January 1, reported the Associated Press.
Rescue services said they only received an alert about the pair on January 6 after they failed to check in for their flight home and relatives alerted the authorities, according to the Associated Press.
The search operation was complicated by snowfall, fog and avalanche warnings, but on January 8, Harris’ body, as well as the men’s backpacks and equipment, was found by rescuers guided by their phone records.