Bones confirmed as Tsar's missing children

Scientists today confirmed they have found the remains of the heir to Russia’s last tsar and his sister.

DNA tests show that bone fragments exhumed in the Ural Mountains belong to Nicholas II’s children, Alexei and Maria.

The governor of Russia’s Sverdlovsk’s region said that the tests performed by a US laboratory have confirmed the identity of the fragments.

Researchers dug up the bone shards last year near the place where Bolsheviks executed the tsar, his family and several servants in 1918.

The remains of Nicholas, the empress Alexandra and three of their daughters had been dug up in 1991 and DNA testing later confirmed their identify.

But the remains of Nicholas’ heir, Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria, had never been located.