Workers strike gold at Belgian building site

‘AMAZEMENT’: Belgian police warned those who would like to visit the site to search for gold, saying: ‘A golden piece of advice: It is truly pointless’

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.

The surprise haul came to light on Tuesday 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 about 50 gold bars and piles of gold coins on their Facebook page.

The logo of Belgian navigation federal police on a bulletproof vest is pictured in Antwerp on Feb. 18 last year.

Photo: Belga via AFP

Belgian news outlets reported that bars and coins worth an estimated 9 million euros (US$10.4 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,” the police post said.