Update: 'Gold' was just gold-plated

A SUITCASE full of what was thought to be 20kg of gold bullion has turned out to be a worthless con, police said.

The find was thought to be worth €800,000 but police checks found that the 20 golden bars were merely base metal covered with a thin layer of gold - which scratched off when checked with a knife.

Police in Essone had been called to attend to a suspect package on an RER B train at Massy-Palaiseau and bomb experts found the "gold" bars when they checked the suitcase.

As the bars had no goldmark stamped into them they were thought to be smelted-down stolen jewellery but now police are looking at the theory they were part of a fraud plot. There has been speculation that the suitcase may have been dumped by someone who feared a police check.

If the gold had been real - and no one claimed it - the value could have been split between the transport company RATP and the conductor who found the case.

Police say CCTV footage did not reveal the owner of the case getting on to the train.