GENEVA, Aug 4 — Two German mountaineers have fallen to their deaths while climbing one of the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps, the Dent Blanche, police said today.

A rescue helicopter was sent after police were alerted by other climbers but officers could "only note the death of the two men,” police from the south-west canton of Valais said in a statement.

"For now, the circumstances of the accident are still undetermined. An investigation has been opened by the public prosecutor’s office,” the statement added.

The two climbers fell between a rocky point called "the grande gendarme” and the summit, which rises to 4,357 metres.

Formal identification of the victims is in progress, officers said. — AFP