Tri-Service

Royal Navy Veterans Die On Alps

The bodies of two British veterans have been recovered from the Matterhorn, in the Alps, after they went missing in bad weather.

The pair have been named locally as Peter Rumble and Dennis Robinson, both aged in their 60s and former Royal Navy officers.

The two climbers sent out an alert on Friday when they got caught on the mountain, as storms came in and temperatures plummeted.

Rescuers were unable to reach them because of high winds but finally located the pair on Saturday morning, Italian mountain rescue said.

The men's bodies were found on rocks buried in snow and have been recovered.

A member of the Italian mountain rescue suggested the pair were caught out by a change in the weather - he told the Press Association:

"We have had a rapid change in the weather. On Thursday afternoon and overnight into Friday we had a lot of storms with snows in the high altitudes, and rapid falls in temperature."

The man said the pair had been climbing the 4,478m (14,691ft) mountain, which straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy, from the Italian side and were on the Cresta del Leone, a rocky ridge and the regular route up from the south.