A tourist from New Zealand is being sought by Cambodian authorities claiming she broke a centuries-old Buddha statue at the country’s famous Angkor Archaeological Park.
Authorities said the statue inside the Bayon temple, dating from the reign of Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century, was destroyed while the 40-year-old woman was reported missing last Thursday evening.
A search party combed the grounds for the woman after her tuk-tuk driver told local tourism police that she had disappeared, the Cambodia Daily reported.
Police detained the woman for questioning after she was located by restoration workers early Friday morning, but they were unaware then that a statue had been damaged and broken into several pieces.
Officials have temporarily closed the temple to tourists and transported the statue’s pieces to a museum to find out if it can be reassembled.
Provincial heritage protection police chief Man Chhoeun said that it was not entirely clear what happened inside the temple but he told the Cambodia Daily: ‘We don’t have evidence to prove that the woman destroyed the statue because we didn’t see it with our eyes, but we suspect this woman did it because she was there.
Cambodia’s deputy prime minister, Sok An, is planning to meet with New Zealand officials to discuss the allegations.
Angkor Archaeological Park was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site over 20 years ago.
