Police are trying to identify two bodies found in a drainage pipe at Cothen near Wijk bij Duurstede, close to where they have been looking for two young brothers who disappeared nearly two weeks ago.

It will take several hours for the bodies to be identified and police have not yet said if they are adults or children, RTL news reported on Sunday afternoon.

Nor have they said if the bodies were found by the helicopter or F16 jet which were involved in the search for the brothers, aged nine and seven, on Sunday.

The two boys have been missing since their father was found dead in woods near Utrecht almost two weeks ago. Cothen is about 10 kilometres from where the boy’s father was found, Nos television said.