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Hunt on for suspected treasure

DEUTSCHKATHARINENBERG (Germany): Treasure hunters began digging on Tuesday for what they claim may be loot buried by the Nazis in a man-made cavern near the Czech border.

The area’s mayor, Hans-Peter Haustein, and a man who believes he found the coordinates for the buried booty in a notebook among his deceased father’s belongings, maintained that a scan of the spot showed that a large quantity of metal was about 20 metres below the surface. They believe it to be either gold or silver, based on the scan with a sophisticated metal detector.

A drilling company began boring pilot holes at one-metre intervals trying to locate the entrance of the cavern, some 100 metres from the Czech border in the eastern German state of Saxony. Once it is found, the searchers will send a camera down into the enclosure to determine exactly what they have found.

“It can’t be iron. The computer readout clearly indicates gold,” Mr. Haustein said.

Mr. Haustein — an amateur treasure hunter and a member of German parliament for the opposition Free Democratic Party — said the process could take several days, depending on how much rock needed to be penetrated.

“These coordinates are from World War II, and could deviate by 10 or 20 metres,” he said. “Therefore, we want to systematically drill the area.” Mr. Haustein has been working with Mr. Hanisch to find the suspected treasure, after the latter found the notebook in the belongings of his father, a former Luftwaffe radio operator, who died last year.

Mr. Haustein said he was convinced they found the fabled Amber Room treasure.

The Amber Room — named for the magnificent wall panels of golden-brown amber — was stolen by the Nazis from a palace outside St. Petersburg during World War II and has never been recovered in its entirety. — AP

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