The bodies of two Belgian mountaineers who disappeared 34 years ago have been found in the Swiss Alps

The bodies of two Belgian climbers who disappeared in the Swiss Alps 34 years ago have been found after the melting of the Trift glacier. The police announced it.

On July 26, a hiker reported the discovery of two bodies on a glacier in southern Switzerland, near the Italian border, the regional police of the canton of Valais said in a statement. The bodies were taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Valais Hospital in Sion for identification.

"A direct comparison of the DNA profiles has formally established that they are two mountaineers who disappeared in the Weissmies region in 1992", reads the statement. The two Belgian men were respectively 39 and 41 years old at the time of their disappearance.

The Valais police keep a list of missing people dating back to 1925, mainly in the high mountains and along rivers. Climate change has accelerated the melting of glaciers, resulting in the release of the bodies of climbers who had been trapped there for years, often decades. Last year, the bones of a Swiss mountaineer who disappeared in 1994 were found on a glacier on the Ober Gabelhorn, also in Valais.