Italian Alps claim lives of two Austrian climbers in fatal ascent

Two Austrian mountaineers have died while attempting to summit a 2,500-metre (8,200-foot) peak in Italy's Julian Alps, the mountain rescue service of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy) bordering Austria said Thursday.

 Missing since Wednesday, the two men were both Alpine rescuers from the southern Austrian city of Villach close to the Slovenian and Italian borders, the rescue service said on Facebook.

They were scaling the "Cima di Riofreddo", whose peak culminates at more than 2,500 metres, when they fell. After calling the missing mountaineers and receiving no reply, relatives alerted the rescuers who deployed a helicopter to the scene.

Their bodies were found dangling from their climbing ropes on Thursday morning, still partially anchored to the mountainside at an altitude of around 2,000 metres, the rescuers added.