Iceman's discoverer dead in Alps

Oetzi's discoverer went missing while hiking in the mountains

Helmut Simon, the German who discovered an intact Bronze Age mummy in an Alps glacier, has been found dead in the Austrian Alps.

A hunter found his remains in a stream just as rescuers were planning to suspend their search eight days after he went missing while on a hike.

The body of the 67-year-old was found on a peak called Gaiskarkogel, near a resort town south of Salzburg, Austria.

Simon and his wife Erika found the mummy of the prehistoric man in 1991.

Rescuers said Simon was probably hiking along an unmarked path when he plunged 100m to his death.

He is believed to have died instantly.

The 5,300-year-old mummy known as Oetzi, which is the star attraction at the museum in Bolzano, northern Italy, draws some 300,000 visitors each year.

But when the Simons found it, they initially thought they had discovered a mountaineer who had had an accident.

In recent years, the couple had been embroiled in a row with the northern Italian authorities over whether they should be considered the official finders of the mummy.

They won this battle in 2003, but a new row then developed over what sum of money the finders should be paid for the discovery.