A decades-old corpse was found in a melting Austrian glacier. Police identified the man using a preserved driver's license found in his backpack.

• A more than 20-year-old corpse was found in a melting Austrian glacier Friday.
• Police were able to identify the man with a driver's license preserved in his backpack in the ice.

A mountain guide at a melting Austrian glacier found the body of a man believed to have been dead for more than two decades on Friday, police announced Tuesday in a statement.

The guide discovered the corpse in the Schlatenkees glacier in East Tyrol at about 2,900 meters, police said, adding that it was clear the body had been stuck there for a long time. They said they were notified of the body and recovered it with a helicopter.

A backpack was also found in the glacier just a few meters beneath the body, police said, containing cash, a bank card, and a driver's license.

The preserved documents helped police identify the man as a 37-year-old Austrian who is believed to have had an accident on the glacier in 2001. Police said he had been traveling with ski-touring equipment.

Police said they are comparing DNA to confirm the man's identity.

Rising temperatures due to the climate crisis are causing glaciers all over the world to melt rapidly, contributing to the discovery of several bodies trapped beneath the ice in recent years.

CNN reported that just last month the body of a German mountain climber who went missing 37 years ago was found in the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt, Switzerland.