Oetzi, the 5,300-year-old ice mummy discovered in the Italian Alps, is at the centre of a bitter court battle as three different people try to claim the ?50,000 (?33,000) reward for discovering him.

　　Credit for finding the prehistoric hunter, whose remains were perfectly preserved in the Oztal glacer on the Italian-Austrian border, originally went to two German hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon.

　　But Mrs Simon, whose husband died last year, now faces rival claims from two other women who say they were part of the same mountaineering party that came across him in 1991.

　　Their claims are being heard in court in Bolzano in northern Italy, where Oetzi is on display, and where he generates ?2 million a year for the city from tourists.

　　The first rival claimant is Swiss woman Sandra Nemeth, who claims to have spat on the mummy to ''mark'' it with her DNA after a row on the hillside with the Simons over who made the discovery. She has asked for a DNA test on the remains but experts believe that there is little chance of finding any trace. The second claimant is Magdalena Mohar Jarc, from Ljubliana, Slovenia.

　　The legal case has angered Mrs Simon, who claims that neither other woman was present on the mountain that day. Her lawyer, Armin Weis, said: "Mrs Simon is very upset by all this and by the fact that these two new claimants have decided to appear 14 years after Oetzi was found."