Construction workers strike gold at Belgium building site

BRUSSELS - Belgian police are calling on treasure hunters to steer clear of a building site where construction workers this week stumbled on a stash of gold reportedly worth more than US$10 million (S$12.8 million).

The surprise haul came to light on Aug 11 during renovation work on a building in the east Flemish town of Dendermonde.

Police said workers alerted them after discovering “a large quantity of gold” – publishing photographs of around 50 gold bars and piles of gold coins on their Facebook page.

Belgian news outlets reported that bars and coins worth an estimated €9 million (S$13.3 million) were found bricked into the cellar walls during the renovation of a house belonging to a local charity, CAW East-Flanders.

One worker interviewed by Belgian news outlet VRT said the crew’s “first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement.”

“We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system,” said the man identified only as Kobe. “We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold.”

Police said the gold was “inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services.”

“Apparently, several treasure hunters would like to pay another visit to the site,” read a Facebook post by the police department – which changed its profile picture to a gold coin in light of the find.

“A golden piece of advice: it is truly pointless,” they said – cautioning the curious to stay away from the fenced-off construction site.

It was not clear who was considered the legal owner of the trove – and if anyone would get to keep it.

“Let us hope that this treasure ends up in the right hands,” said the police post. AFP