Friend of British hiker missing in Italy voices ‘acceptance’ as search continues
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Joe Stone says authorities ‘trying everything’ to find Aziz Ziriat after body of Sam Harris discovered on Wednesday. A close friend of a British hiker who has been missing in the Dolomites since New Year’s Day has said “there is an acceptance that it won’t be good news” as search efforts continued.
Sam Harris, 35, and Aziz Ziriat, 36, from London, last sent messages home on 1 January and the pair did not check in to their flight home on 6 January. Friends and relatives have travelled to Italy. The body of Harris was found on Wednesday buried in deep snow at the foot of a cliff about 2,600 metres (8,500ft) above sea level in the area of the Conca pass in the Adamello nature park.
Joe Stone, a university friend of Ziriat, told the PA Media news agency that the authorities were “trying everything” to find the 36-year-old, who has now been missing for 10 days. “There is an acceptance among us that it’s not going to be good news,” Stone said on Saturday. “But it would be really nice to find him and be put out of this limbo.”.
The pair’s last known location had been a mountain hut called Casina Dosson, close to the town of Tione di Trento, near Riva del Garda on Lake Garda. Italy’s national alpine cliff and cave rescue corps said on Saturday that the search for Ziriat, who works for the Crystal Palace FC charity Palace for Life, had resumed at first light.
