Teenager finds gold bar while swimming in lake in Germany

A 16-year-old girl has found a 500 gram (1lb) bar of gold, said to be worth more than £11,000, while swimming in an Alpine lake in Germany - and police say she may get to keep it.

The girl was visiting the Königssee lake (King Lake) in Bavaria when she found the bar just six and a half ft beneath the water's surface.

See also:30 gold bars worth £10,000 found on beach in Kent

The girl, who has not been named, handed the gold, which could be worth up to 16,000 euros (£11,500), to police at the popular holiday resort on Friday.

A picture released by officers shows the bar, which is 6cm long, has several markings including references to its weight.

It also has Degussa Feingold - a company that has been manufacturing bars for more than 150 years - engraved at the top.

Police divers have carried out a thorough search of the lake, billed as 'the cleanest lake in Germany', but so far nothing else of note has been found.

See also:Fisherman's gold bar prank backfires, causing police investigation

Officers later confirmed they did not know how it got under the water or where it came from.

The find revived rumours about gold from the Nazi era which was once said to have been lost in the lake, which is on the border with Austria, reports the Daily Mail.

However, experts have since claimed the gold bar does not bear the correct markings to have been from the era.

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