Russia says remains of Tsar's son identified

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors confirmed on Wednesday that remains found last year belong to Tsar Nicholas II's only son and his daughter who were murdered exactly 90 years ago by the Bolsheviks.

The Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit said DNA samples and an analysis of the teeth showed that the remains, found near the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, were those of Tsar Nicholas II's 13-year-old heir Prince Alexei and daughter Maria.

Bolshevik executioners shot the Tsar and his family in 1918 in the basement of a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg, 1,450 km (900 miles) east of Moscow. Attempts were made to destroy the bodies, then they were dumped into pits.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Catherine Evans)