Two British tourists have fallen to their deaths in the ski resort of Les Deux Alpes, the Foreign Office said today.
Richard Ryan, 27, and Christopher Lockwood, 28, fell into an icy valley known as the "Black Coombe" on their way home after a night out, according to police in the resort. Rescuers said the men appeared to have tried taking a shortcut through an area marked by many warning signs to reach their chalet.
The pair, both from Leeds, Yorkshire, were last seen by friends leaving the British-style pub Smithy's to return to their chalet at around 2am on Thursday.
Their bodies were found on Friday afternoon after a 36-hour search by police and mountain rescue teams.
A Deux Alpes police spokesman told a local news agency: "Their friends alerted us that they were missing in the early hours of Thursday after they left the bar but never made it back to the chalet.
"The spot where they fell is very steep and, although unprotected, there are signs up everywhere which are lit up at night warning of the ravine."
Seven other people had fallen at almost the same spot over the past 10 years, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the frozen body of the British teacher Christopher Hilton, who vanished in the French Alps seven months ago, was discovered on a mountainside yesterday.
A major air and land search was launched after Mr Hilton, 33, from Stalybridge, near Manchester, disappeared during a solo hiking expedition last summer.
Two French climbers found his body, partly covered in snow and ice, on a rocky ledge in the Oisans range of the central French Alps.
A mountain rescue spokesman said last night: "From the position of the body, it appears he had perhaps been traversing a ridge about 50 metres higher up and slipped and fell.
"This tragedy happened last summer when there would not have been snow or ice on the ground.
"But even in summer, this is very dangerous terrain where the weather can change quickly, and anyone without good knowledge of it is putting themselves at risk."
