A New Zealand tourist being hunted by Cambodian officials after an ancient statue was destroyed at the renowned Angkor Wat temple complex has admitted her guilt.
Willemijn Vermaat, now back in Auckland, said she smashed the statue because ‘it didn’t belong’ in the temple.
She apologised to UNESCO for damaging the temple.
Cambodian authorities had been searching for Vermaat, who was initially discovered after illegally staying overnight at the 12th-century Bayon temple.
After being questioned by police and then released without charge, it was then revealed that a 1m-tall Buddha statue was destroyed inside the temple.
Angkor Wat is open from dawn to dusk every day but closed to visitors overnight.
Investigators said they were searching for ‘evidence to prosecute the criminal who destroyed the national heritage statue".
A section of the temple is now closed off for restoration work on the broken statue.
The Angkor Archaeological Park is Cambodia’s foremost tourist attraction, and is reputedly the world’s largest religious structure.
It attracts over two million visitors a year.
