Two People Arrested in China for Attempting to Use an Excavator to Dig a Hole in the Great Wall of China

According to official broadcaster CCTV, two persons have been apprehended after using an excavator to make a hole in the Great Wall of China.

Police in the province of Shanxi tracked mechanical tracks that were used to break down a section of the wall, which was part of the massive barrier that China’s emperors erected to keep off foreign invaders.

According to state media, the suspects acknowledged under interrogation that they had created a bypass in the wall using a digger to cut down on local travel time.

The earliest phases of the Great Wall’s construction, which spans thousands of kilometers and is divided into sections, started in the third century BC and lasted for decades.

The afflicted stretch of the Great Wall was built during China’s Ming Dynasty, which ruled from the 14th to the 17th century, and is located roughly six hours’ drive west of Beijing’s downtown.

An “irreversible damage” to the Ming-era wall, which was characterized as a “relatively intact” part of substantial study value, was reportedly perpetrated by the suspects, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Monday.

The aftermath of the incident was shown in images on Chinese official television, where a dusty path had been carved through a length of elevated ground that looked to be the remains of the old barrier.

According to CCTV, “the case is continuing to be investigated, and the two suspects are currently being criminally detained in accordance with the law.”