DNA tests have confirmed that a body found off the coast of Brazil is that of a priest who disappeared while flying over the Atlantic buoyed by hundreds of brightly coloured party balloons, authorities said.

Rescue crews scoured densely forested mountains in southern Brazil today for signs of a Roman Catholic priest who vanished over the Atlantic Ocean with a cluster of helium balloons.

A ROMAN Catholic priest who floated off under 1,000 helium party balloons has gone missing off the coast of Brazil.