A group of treasure hunters may have stumbled across two tonnes of Nazi gold whilst hunting for the elusive Amber Room.

They have been digging in the small eastern German town Deutschneudorf on the border with the Czech Republic.

The Amber Room - which was a complete chamber decoration of panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors - was a gift from Prussian king Frederik William I to Russian Tsar Peter the Great.

Amber Room was dismantled by Wehrmacht soldiers near St Petersburg in 1941, but knowledge of its whereabouts was lost in the chaos at the end of the Second World War and archaeologists have been searching for it for decades.

The latest treasure hunters believe they may have found up to two tonnes of looted Nazi gold or silver hidden in an underground hollow space, but not the Amber Room itself.

Christian Hanisch said: "We will find this hollow space, enter it and then we'll see what we find. We might come out crying or with a big smile on our faces. Something will happen."

Mr Hanisch's is using coordinates based on documents provided by his father - who was a radio operator for the German air force during World War II - to determine the location where the Nazis are said to have hidden looted gold and diamonds at the end of the war.

In 2003, a reconstruction of the Amber Room was officially opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The Soviet Union decided to recreate the missing treasure in 1979 and some 50 experts worked on the project which was partly financed by a German gas suppliers.

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