Human skull discovered

Mercantour Park patrollers were shocked by their gruesome find Copyright All Mountain

During a routine patrol of Vens in Saint-Dalmas-le-Selvage above the Tinée river yesterday, Mercantour park rangers made an unexpected discovery - a snow covered human skull. Puget-Théniers police and TIC (Techniciens en Investigation Criminelle) crime experts were called to the scene, and further investigations revealed two more human bones.

The skeletal remains are thought to belong to a man named Mattia, an assistant keeper of Italian refugees originally from Parma. The man disappeared after spending a night in the Vens refuge shelter and has not been since since 6th August 2011.

"We can not help but think that the skull may belong to Mattia but we must wait until DNA test results are revealed,” Laurent Guibert, a member of Puget-Théniers police told the Nice Matin.

Louise Kirby