Hitler tried to build flying saucers during WWII

London: Adolf Hitler tried to build a fleet of flying saucers to attack London and New York, a media report said.

The Sun reported that one alleged site of production of the Nazi UFOs is a series of tunnels buried under the Jonas Valley in Thuringia, central Germany.

Under the command of SS General Hans Kammler, slave labourers there toiled to bring Hitler's fantasies into existence, it said.

The German science mag PM has reported how "advanced" the programme was as scientists toiled in secret factories to produce the "wonder weapon" to win the war.

The magazine quotes eyewitnesses who saw a flying saucer marked with the German Iron Cross flying low over the Thames in 1944. "America also treated the existence of the weapons seriously," it said.

The US believed Germany could use it to drop weapons on New York - a target the Fuhrer was obsessed with as the war progressed.

At the time the New York Times reported on a "mysterious flying disc" with photos of the device seen travelling at extremely high speeds over the city's high-rise buildings.

"Apparently that machine was capable on its maiden flight of travelling 2,000 km," added the PM report. "The Germans had destroyed much of the paperwork of their activities but there are numerous hints that it did indeed exist."

The Nazi UFO project was driven by engineers Rudolf Schriever and Otto Habermohl and was based in Prague between 1941 and 1943.

Initially a Luftwaffe project, it eventually fell under the control of armaments minister Albert Speer before being taken over once again in 1944 by Kammler, according to The Sun. Joseph Andreas Epp, an engineer who served as a consultant to the Schriever-Habermohl project, claimed 15 prototypes were built.