INVESTIGATIONS are continuing after a Hampshire teenager plunged to his death on a Swiss Alpine peak.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the young man found dead on the slopes of the Mutthorn mountain on Sunday was 18-year-old Michael Evans.

He was a student at Totton College in Water Lane.

As reported yesterday in the Daily Echo, the youngster had been found poorly equipped with training shoes and only a thin jacket.

College principal Mark Bramwell paid tribute to the teenager from Totton, who had been due to take three A-levels and an AS-level this summer.

He said: "Any accident like this is very upsetting, but for it to happen to a young man coming to the end of his college career and with everything to look forward to, it is particularly upsetting."

When asked if the college would be doing anything in tribute to Michael, Mr Bramwell said it "would be led by his family's wishes".

The teenager, who has a brother and sister, was on holiday with his family at the three-star wooden-clad Alpenland hotel in the tiny village of Lauenen, near Gstaad, when the tragedy happened.

After lunch on Friday he set off on a solo hiking expedition but had not returned by Saturday morning.

Mountain rescue teams were alerted and Michael's body was found on Sunday at the foot of a steep slope.

Rescuers believe he had slipped and fallen to his death down a steep slope.

It is understood Michael's parents were due back home yesterday.