Two treasure hunters who have been digging for a Nazi gold train believed to be buried in southwest Poland said on Thursday they had given up after two weeks and zero results.
"There's nothing," said Andrzej Gaik, spokesman for the Polish-German team, which carried out the search near the city of Walbrzych using ground-penetrating radar, bulldozers and drills.
"Last night we shut down operations, which we have to admit, proved fruitless," he told AFP.
He added however that the team plan to resume their search in September at a site "right nearby" if they manage to secure authorisation.
The search results from a media frenzy sparked in August 2015 when German national Andreas Richter and Piotr Koper, a Pole, claimed to have located an armoured Nazi-era train using ground-penetrating radar.
They said they had discovered several carriages measuring 98 metres (320 feet) long, buried some eight to nine metres (26 to 28 foot) underground.
They said they believed the contents were mostly weapon prototypes, although local legend spoke of artwork, jewels and gold stolen by the Nazis.
The Nazis made prisoners of war dig a network of tunnels in the area -- and some locals have claimed the Germans tried to stash the loot there in early 1945 as the Soviet Union's Red Army closed in.
Since the duo's announcement, however, there has been little to back their claims.
Running tests in December, geologists from Krakow's prestigious AGH University of Science and Technology found no evidence for the train's existence.
But Richter and Koper ploughed ahead.
Two treasure hunters who have been digging for a Nazi gold train believed to be buried in southwest Poland said on Thursday they had given up after two weeks and zero results.
“There’s nothing,” said Andrzej Gaik, spokesman for the Polish-German team, which carried out the search near the city of Walbrzych using ground-penetrating radar, bulldozers and drills.
“Last night we shut down operations, which we have to admit, proved fruitless,” he told AFP.
He added however that the team plan to resume their search in September at a site “right nearby” if they manage to secure authorisation.
The search results from a media frenzy sparked in August 2015 when German national Andreas Richter and Piotr Koper, a Pole, claimed to have located an armoured Nazi-era train using ground-penetrating radar.
They said they had discovered several carriages measuring 98 metres (320 feet) long, buried some eight to nine metres (26 to 28 foot) underground.
They said they believed the contents were mostly weapon prototypes, although local legend spoke of artwork, jewels and gold stolen by the Nazis.
The Nazis made prisoners of war dig a network of tunnels in the area — and some locals have claimed the Germans tried to stash the loot there in early 1945 as the Soviet Union’s Red Army closed in.
Since the duo’s announcement, however, there has been little to back their claims.
Running tests in December, geologists from Krakow’s prestigious AGH University of Science and Technology found no evidence for the train’s existence.
But Richter and Koper ploughed ahead.
