There is no Nazi gold train after all — Polish scientists

Piotr Koper and Andreas Liechter presented this image as evidence of the Nazi gold train they claimed to have found. (Image by Gazeta Wroclawska newspaper via Twitter)

Scientists rooted out Tuesday a claim by two amateur treasure hunters that they had discovered a legendary gold train hidden by the Nazis in a southern Polish railway embankment.

“There is no train,” Professor Janusz Madej of the Polish mining academy said in a well-attended press conference in the city of Wałbrzych, BBC News reports. “The geo-magnetic model anomalies would be far greater if there was a train,” he added.

Piotr Koper from Poland and Andreas Richter from Germany told authorities earlier this year that they knew where the train was hidden. The location reportedly was revealed during a deathbed confession.

After the Polish army cleared the area, scientists from the mining academy at the Krakow University of Science and Technology scanned the location, using magnetic field detectors, thermal imaging cameras and radars.

Scientists from the mining academy at the Krakow University of Science and Technology scan the area. (Image by Gazeta Wroclawska newspaper via Twitter)

While the researchers concluded there was no evidence of any wagons, they did not rule out the existence of a tunnel.

Speaking at the same press conference, Koper questioned the survey methodology applied by the team of scientists, adding he believed there was a train in the tunnel. He proceeded to present “evidence” to support his case, The Telegraph reported, without mentioning what sort of proof was shown.

Speaking at today’s press conference, Koper questioned the survey methodology applied by the team of scientists, adding he believed there was a train in the tunnel. (Image: Screenshot from live press conference broadcast by Gazeta Wroclawska)

The Polish government did little to dampen speculation ever since the news emerged last August. Deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski even said authorities were “99% certain” the German military train, believed to have been buried during World War II by the Nazis, was actually in Polish soil.

A number of trains are believed to have been used by the Nazis in the 1940s to transport goods stolen from people in Eastern Europe back to Berlin. While some might have made it to the German capital, others are said to have been left behind by Soviet troops, as they advanced in 1945.