Remains discovered on Switzerland’s Matterhorn glacier have been identified as two Japanese climbers who disappeared 45 years ago.

The bones were found at the foot of the glacier, at altitude of roughly 2,800m, last September and DNA tests have confirmed they are those of the men who went missing in August 1970, the BBC reports.

The Japanese consulate in Geneva confirmed the men were Michio Oikawa, 22, and Masayuki Kobayashi.

The remains are just the latest to be found on Alpine glaciers, with global warming causing melting and shrinking of the ice.

The remains of a British climber who went missing in 1979 were discovered in 2013, close to the peak of the mountain. In 2014 the body of a Czech climber, who had been missing for 40 year, was found on the Bernese Alps.