A body found in eastern Belgium is confirmed to be the far-right soldier who threatened the lives of several COVID-19 experts last month, according to Belgium's Defense Minister.

Conings "has been found dead," the minister said.

"The cause of death is probably, according to initial findings, attributable to suicide by firearm," a statement added.

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The eastern regions of Belgium had been on alert since 19 May when the solider was reported missing by his girlfriend, and a threatening note was found. 

Conings, who the press dubbed "Belgian Rambo," was on far-right monitoring lists before disappearing and leaving behind a letter threatening several public figures. He then visited leading virologist Marc Van Ranst's house and lurked outside for two hours.

Van Ranst and his family relocated to a safe house after the incident.

The subsequent search for Conings involved police units from four countries. His car was found with an anti-tank rocket launcher inside it.

Conings' body was found in the woodland area police had previously searched, not far from his home in the Limburg region of Dutch-speaking Flanders. 

A local mayor located the corpse on June 20 while riding his bike.

"During my mountain bike tour this morning, in a part where few people come, I smelled a strong corpse odour," Johan Tollenaere, the mayor of Maaseik, said.

"I immediately thought of Jurgen Conings and notified the police. They found the body."

Van Ranst, the virologist Conings threatened, tweeted in response to the discovery: "My thoughts go out to the relatives and children of Jurgen Conings. For them, this is very sad news, because they lose a father, a relative or a friend."

Conings' threats and disappearance had caused some embarrassment to the Belgian government. The public questioned why Conings was able to access weapons when he was on a watch list.

Defense minister Ludivine Dedonder responded by saying "there was a failure in procedures," and promised to try to change vetting laws for soldiers able to access weapons.

Conings has also received a lot of support online. One pro-Conings Facebook group had 45,000 members before it was shut down.