Melting glacier reveals bodies of dead hikers on Mont Blanc

MILAN -- Italian mountain rescue crews said they have recovered the remains of two or three hikers on a glacier on Mont Blanc's southern face likely dating from the 1980s or 1990s.

Alpine rescue commander Delfino Viglione said Friday the bodies were discovered this week by a hiker who was searching the area for artifacts from decades-old plane crashes, including one in the 1960s that killed more than 100 people.

Viglione said a wallet belonging to a German man who went missing in the 1990s was found in a backpack near the remains. A coroner was testing the remains to see if they are a match.

Glacier melting during this unusually hot summer in Europe helped reveal the remains, which were torn asunder over the years by natural glacier movements.

Last month, a shrinking glacier in Switzerland revealed the bodies of a frozen couple who went missing 75 years ago.

Marcelin Dumoulin and his wife, Francine, were 40 and 37 years old when they disappeared on Aug. 15, 1942. Regional police told local media in July that their bodies were discovered near a ski lift on the glacier by a worker for an adventure resort company.