Bank Vault Plans Found in Bin

Germany's central bank has launched an investigation after classified plans for a vault system at its Berlin branch were discovered by a hairdresser in a rubbish bin in his backyard.

The 26-year-old stylist found the documents - which showed detailed drawings of the bank's safe, the location of its steel security doors, detectors, stairs and grilled gates as well as the thickness of its floors.

Security experts say the plans would have been gold dust to criminals.

The hairdresser, identified only as Patrick, told the Bild newspaper: "I came across the plastic bags full of building sketches ... marked with the words 'top secret'."

A spokesman for the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Berlin branch of which reopened last month after a €156m (£113m) renovation, said that an internal investigation had been launched and the police had been informed. But he dismissed the possibility that, based on the plans, anyone would have been able to break into the bank's subterranean vaults.

"We consider it to be absolutely out of the question that anyone could crack our safe," said Albrecht Sommer.