Rescuers found the body of a British hiker under an avalanche in the mountains of Corsica on Thursday after he went missing almost a week ago, emergency services said.

The rescue service said it had pulled the hiker's body out after locating it using a probing device in a snow drift six and half feet deep near the 8,860-feet peak Monte Cinto.

Local authorities said the 28-year-old was an experienced walker who set off alone on the GR20 hiking route along the ridges of the French Mediterranean island, and had last spoken by telephone to his friends on December 25.

Rescuers had earlier tracked the signal from his mobile telephone to a spot at about 200 metres' altitude and had found his dog and belongings at a nearby mountain refuge.

A source in the rescue service said the body had not yet been formally identified and was due to be flown by helicopter to the northern Corsican city of Bastia.