Great Wall of China ‘severely damaged’ by construction workers

The Great Wall of China is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Two construction workers using an excavator have ‘severely damaged’ a part of the Great Wall of China, according to news reports.

Chinese police say the two people are suspected of trying to create a shortcut for their construction work and that they have been detained as the case is investigated.

The workers are accused of digging a big gap by widening an existing cavity of the Great Wall so that their excavator could pass through it and thus reduce the distance they had to travel.

The construction workers were working on the 32nd Great Wall. This is a section of the Ming Great Wall that is categorised as a historical and cultural site and is protected at the provincial level.

Officials were alerted to the damage on 24 August after receiving reports of a large gap in the wall.

According to a report in the BBC, Police said that the two caused, “irreversible damage to the integrity of the Ming Great Wall and to the safety of the cultural relics”.