A secret stash of up to 10 tonnes of gold, believed to have been hidden by retreating Japanese forces during the second world war, has reportedly been discovered in the dense, mountainous jungles of Papua New Guinea.
Troops and police have been sent to recover the bullion, which according to Papua New Guinea's Post-Courier newspaper was found about two weeks ago in a cave on New Ireland, a large island 850km northeast of the capital, Port Moresby.
A local villager found an unknown number of gold bars in rotting wooden crates.
It is not the first time that stories have emerged of pilfered gold left behind by the Japanese, who occupied Papua New Guinea for more than three years after invading in 1942.
New Ireland and neighbouring New Britain were among the last Japanese strongholds in the country to be liberated by Allied forces. The Japanese built a 500km-long network of tunnels around Rabaul, the provincial capital of New Britain.
The theory is that they may have used the remote, rugged islands as a hiding place for gold and other valuables which were looted from across the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.