Poland: Scientists cast doubt on buried Nazi gold train claims

Scientists have dismissed claims by two amateur treasure hunters that they have discovered trains laden with Nazi gold buried under a railway embankment in southern Poland.

"There is no train," Professor Janusz Madej of the Polish mining academy told a press conference in the city of Wałbrych. "The geo-magnetic model anomalies would be far greater if there was a train," he said.

The story made international headlines after the treasure hunters, who are from Poland and Germany, told authorities they had discovered the location of a train that, according to local legend, disappeared transporting valuables through a network of tunnels in Poland's Owl Mountains as the Red Army advanced through eastern Europe.

A team of experts has spent weeks examining a 22-mile (35km) stretch of railway on the Wrocław-Wałbrych line, using magnetic field detectors, thermal imaging cameras and radars to scan the railway's embankments for the buried train.

The initial assessment from the experts from the Polish mining academy did not deter the treasure hunters, Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter, who told a press conference that they had discovered fresh evidence of the whereabouts of the train.

"We believe there is a train," insisted Koper. "The readings [by the scientists] are different because the methodological approach was not the same as ours."

In August, Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said that he was "99% convinced" of the existence of the of the buried train after examining radar footage, with images appearing to show a train with gun turrets concealed in an embankment.