Great Wall of China damaged by workers allegedly looking for shortcut for their excavator

Two people have been arrested in northern China after allegedly damaging a section of China's iconic Great Wall by using an excavator to cut a huge gap in the ancient structure, local police said in a statement posted online. The suspects, a 38-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman, are construction workers who were allegedly trying to create a shortcut to save time going around the wall, the police said, describing the structure as "severely damaged." 

The police in China's northwest Youyu County said they were alerted on August 24 to reports that a gap had been dug in a section of the famous structure known as the 32nd Great Wall, a section dating back to the Ming Dynasty, which ruled over China for almost 300 years until the mid-1640s. 

"Excavators were used to excavate the original gap of the ancient Great Wall into a large gap, so that the excavator could pass through the gap, which caused irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and the safety of cultural relics," the police statement said.