Two young Chinese nationals have been found dead near the wreckage of a plane that crashed in 1973, a popular tourist spot in southern Iceland, police said Friday.

The young man and woman, both in their 20s, were discovered on Thursday after police received reports that a woman's body had been found on the Solheimasandur plain in Iceland's south, near the footpath leading to the fuselage of an old American military transport plane that crashed in 1973.

After police arrived at the site and began searching, the body of the young man was found a short distance from the woman, police said in a statement.

Authorities later confirmed that both the deceased where Chinese nationals.

"We have had very bad and cold weather on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday and it is most likely that they died from exposure to the wind and the low temperature during a hike," Oddur Arnason, chief superintendent for the south Iceland police, told AFP.

Arnason added that autopsies needed to be performed to confirm the causes of death.

Local media reported that the couple were believed to have been travelling together and a rental car was found parked in a nearby parking lot.

Many parts of Iceland experienced extreme weather earlier this week as winter storms led the Icelandic Met Office to issue weather alerts and warn people not to travel.