Mountains of mysteries ... The Ksiaz Castle in Walbrzych, Poland. Once a Nazi military headquarters, it presided over an extensive and highly secret tunnelling project. Source: AFP
THE lawyer representing two men claiming to have found a buried Nazi train Poland has back-pedalled on claims it contains gold after one treasure hunter died when he fell into a pit.
Instead, he told local television last night, it may contain ‘valuable minerals’.
A frenzy of excitement over the prospect of discovering a long-lost cache of Nazi loot has swept the world since a Polish local council announced treasure hunters had approached it with a formal finder’s claim last month.
Alleged #goldtrain location, note points D and E pic.twitter.com/5vyA788z3j
— Exen (@Exen) September 9, 2015The Polish government did little to dampen speculation when it declared it was ‘99 per cent certain’ the train actually exists.
A 39-year-old treasure seeker died yesterday after falling into a pit beneath an old German tomb in his search for rumoured secret Nazi tunnels. His two colleagues have since been arrested on desecration charges.
On patrol ... Railway guards patrolling tracks to prevent gold hunters and history buffs from getting harmed by passing trains near the site where two men allegedly found a Nazi gold train hidden underground near Walbrzych, Poland. Source: APSource:AP
Expectation management
So has, as local legends in the south-western Polish city of Walbrzych suggest, a Nazi train been hidden in a collapsed tunnel since 1945?
Lawyer Jaroslaw Chmielewski told TVN24 last night that the train probably did not hold valuables — other than rare metals.
His clients, Andreas Richter and Piotr Koper, revealed their identities for the first time late last week when they read a statement on Polish news service TVP.INFO. They declared city authorities now know the train’s location.
Richter later confirmed to AP he had found the train. The pair said they had “irrefutable” proof of the train’s existence, based on knowledge from witnesses and on their own research.
They also reasserted it was an armoured train from World War II.
Tangled mess ... Polish military officials inspect the site where an armoured World War II Nazi train is said to be buried. Source: APSource:AP
Excavations delayed
On Tuesday, Poland’s military said the wooded area where the train is said to be buried needs to be cleared before any search can be done.
A spokesman for the army operations command, Lt Colonel Artur Golawski, said an inspection on the area had been completed last week. He said negotiations were underway with local authorities to remove fallen trees and shrubs.
Oh but there's more #goldtrain news tonight. Here's a 1926 map of the exact location with siding visible (@De_EL_E) pic.twitter.com/6mh9kL20kv
— Exen (@Exen) September 9, 2015Poland’s Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski previously told reporters that he had been informed the buried train was more than 100 metres long, and that he had seen an image from ground-penetrating radar that appeared to show the outline of an armoured train.
“We will be 100 per cent sure only when we find the train,” Zuchowski later qualified.
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The finale focuses on SS reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, who was picked up by a British patrol while attempting to make his way to Bavaria following Germany's defeat. He committed suicide the next day.
