The city of Wałbrzych is experiencing a gold rush after two men claimed that they had found a Nazi train containing gold looted from Jews that went missing in spring, 1945.

Scores of treasure hunters this week descended on the hills surrounding Wałbrzych, in south-west Poland, after the deputy culture minister, Piotr Zuchowski, said last week he had seen contours of the train on an image from a ground-penetrating radar device.

Mr Zuchowski said he was "99 per cent certain the train exists".

The hidden train was said to be located somewhere between the 61st and the 65th kilometre of the line between Wałbrzych and Wrocław.

Mr Zuchowski said the men who claimed to have made the discovery, a German and a Pole, learned of the location from a dying individual who had been involved in transporting the train in 1945.

However, the Polish governor of the province, Lower Silesia, said at a news conference on Monday in Wroclaw that new evidence about the train's location and its contents "are not any stronger than similar claims made in past decades".