Story highlights
Team of treasure hunters says yes; Polish scientists say there is no evidence of the train
The missing train could have over $1 million in gold, according to officials
Two search teams disagreed about whether a Nazi train carrying gold had been found after disappearing 70 years ago.
A team of treasure hunters originally said they found evidence of the train in a tunnel in Poland, and they maintained their stance in a news conference on Tuesday.
“We have a train and a short tunnel,” said treasure hunter Piotr Koper.
A team of scientists from Krakow University of Science and Technology disagreed, however. “We may have a tunnel, but there is no train,” said one of the scientists to reporters.
Both teams used ground-penetrating radar, and the scientists used additional magnetic and earth penetrating equipment.
The train reputedly went missing in 1945, at the end of World War II, when the Soviet Red Army was closing in on the forces of Nazi Germany. As local lore has it, the train left Wroclaw, then part of Germany, for Walbrzych, but never reached its destination.
The train was rumored to be in one of the many railway tunnels that were built in the region of Walbrzych during the war era and sealed off afterward.
The treasure hunters have demanded 10% of the value of the gold, which could be worth well over $1 million, according to officials.
With the potentially lucrative reward also comes risk, however, as gold isn’t all that the military train could be carrying.
It could also contain unexploded bombs, and if it is in a sealed underground tunnel, a build-up of methane poses a further explosion risk, say authorities.
Laura Smith-Spark, Vasco Cotovio, Jennifer Deaton and Anna Oberc contributed to this report.
