Hundreds of people are flocking to a field at Neuhofen im Innkreis in Austria after a mysterious perfectly round hole appeared overnight, leading down to a metallic construction 25-foot underground.
Farmer Franz Knoglinger, 47, discovered the hole while looking for his missing cat and after a report on local television he was flooded with curious visitors, as well as geologists, archaeologists and even UFO experts.
He said: “I was looking for our family cat Murlimann when I noticed the hole. I didn’t know how deep it was then so I dropped the stone down there, and heard a metallic clunk.
“From the time it took for the stone to reach the bottom I realised it was very deep.
“I managed to get a big magnet which I dangled down there and it clearly fastened onto something at the bottom – so there is something large and metallic about down there. It also sounds as if there is a hollow space around about whatever the metal object is – it sounds as if there is a room underneath.”
He said they needed 25 foot of rope to lower the magnet down and the local plumber who had tried to use a special camera to view the object had failed to get an image.
He said: “There seem to be disturbance on the line – maybe it was some sort of electrical field. Either way the camera didn’t bring a good result.”
Archaeologists suggested the hole could have been left by a wooden timber from an underground burial chamber that had rotted away.
Locals speculated it might have been a bomb as the area had been heavily targeted during the war.
But alien watchers have also been attracted by the find and are speculating about a buried spacecraft.
One man had even turned up with a sandwich board and the words “Beware – The Doorway to Hell”.
Geologists from the local council are expected to visit the site on Monday to carry out further tests.
In the meantime the family cat has appeared again, she had been sleeping in an airing cupboard at the family farm and the door had been closed – shutting her in.