Gold hunters blocked from alleged Nazi train site

WARSAW, Poland — Polish authorities have blocked off a wooded area near a railroad track after scores of treasure hunters swarmed southwest Poland looking for an alleged Nazi gold train.

The city of Walbrzych and its surrounding wooded hills are experiencing a gold rush after two men, a Pole and a German, informed authorities through their lawyers that they have found a Nazi train with armaments and valuables that reportedly went missing in the spring of 1945 while fleeing the Red Army.

Inspired by a local legend since World War II, people with metal detectors and ground-penetrating equipment are combing the area and its still-used railway tracks. Some of them have arrived from Germany.

The gold fever intensified after deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said last week he had seen contours of the train on an image from a ground-penetrating device.

The alleged site is somewhere between the 61th and the 65th kilometer of the tracks that wind their way between Walbrzych and Wroclaw.

Provincial governor Tomasz Smolarz said Monday that police, city and railway guards are now patrolling the area and blocking treasure hunters to prevent any accidents with trains running on the tracks.

“Half of Walbrzych’s residents and other people are going treasure hunting or just for walks to see the site. We are worried for their security,” police spokeswoman Magdalena Koroscik told The Associated Press. People walking down the tracks can’t escape “a train that emerges from behind the rocks at 70 kph (43 mph).”