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Victims of decades-old accident found on Swiss glacier

Set off on foot on Aug. 15, 1942, never returned

BERLIN — Police say the bodies of what appear to be two people killed in an accident decades ago have been recovered from a glacier in southwestern Switzerland.

Valais canton (state) police say the bodies were found on the Tsanfleuron glacier Friday at an altitude of 2,615 metres (8,580 feet). They say the equipment found suggests that they died decades ago, and that formal identification with the help of DNA will take several days.

Swiss daily Le Matin on Tuesday quoted the suspected victims’ daughter, 79-year-old Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, as saying that her parents set off on foot on Aug. 15, 1942 to feed their animals but never returned.

Local rescue teams spent more than two months searching crevasses before giving up.