Aziz Ziriat, 36, and Samuel Harris, 35, from London, were last heard from on 1 January after sending messages home from the Trentino region in northern Italy. They did not check into their flight home on 6 January.

The rescue team said a body was found “unfortunately lifeless, buried under the snow” after a helicopter search resumed on Wednesday morning.

The discovery was made in a high-altitude area where a phone signal was last recorded from one of the men, it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the team issued an update saying the men’s backpacks and equipment were found during a search of a bivouac hut they are believed to have sheltered at.

It comes after a video taken on the day they were last heard from revealed they had planned to leave their packs for a day before they moved on to the next valley.

In the video, Mr Ziriat said they had just stayed at “this little Bivacco – absolute quality little setup”.

He goes on to say they were “looking forward to a day scampering” and made the decision to leave their packs because they spent two days “lugging them up this God forsaken valley”.

“We’ll have a day frolicking before we send them over to the next valley so we’ll see how we get on,” he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, an area between the hut and the summit of a nearby mountain was also searched by helicopter for any signals coming from reflective surfaces and electronic devices, but the team said nothing was found.

The rescue team said it was continuing a search for the other man and was also using dog units that were specialised in avalanche searches.

The team added Mr Ziriat and Mr Harris’ family members, who have come to Italy, were being supported by psychologists.

Rebecca Dimmock, Mr Ziriat’s girlfriend, previously described the pair as “experienced hikers”.She told the BBC: “They wanted to do a New Year’s hike. They wanted to go from hut to hut throughout the Dolomites.

“They were planning on going off-grid, so that’s not unexpected at all,” she said.

Ms Dimmock added: “I think they wanted to have some nights where they were out in nature and in fresh air and sleeping in the wild.

“But they also wanted to get into the huts and have fires and drink red wine because it was New Year’s, which they did do, because he did message me at one point, and he was carrying a log up the mountain to one of the huts.

“I know they made it to the hut, and they were drinking red wine, but he said it was freezing.”

Ms Dimmock said she last spoke to Mr Ziriat at about 10:00 GMT on New Year’s Day.

“He sent some photos of the mountains and a couple of himself.

“He said his phone was about to die, but he would write back to me properly soon.”

A few hours later, her messages were not being received by Mr Ziriat’s phone, she continued.

“His phone had obviously died at that point, or he was out of range,” she said.