Tourist smashes two Terracotta Army warriors during bizarre museum rampage
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Two of the world famous Terracotta Army clay warriors have been damaged after a tourist jumped into a pit and pushed them over.
The 30-year-old man launched himself into the pit at the museum housing the antiques in Xi'an, China, on May 30, while eyewitnesses looked on in shock.
Once inside the 18ft deep pit, the man, only identified by his surname, Sun, pushed and pulled over the statues.
Video footage then shows him lying on the ground covering his face as eyewitnesses yell at him.
One, Xiao Lin, said he was visiting the site with a tour guide when he suddenly saw the man jump in.
He shouted, 'What are you doing?' before the man touched the figures and pushed them over.
He said: 'Later, the museum was closed, and we were evacuated by staff. I didn't see how the man was removed from the pit.'
A tour guide at the scene, named Tete, confirmed the man jumped in and toppled over the terracotta warriors.
Afterwards museum security restrained the man while authorities confirmed he is suffering with his mental health.
The exhibit is still open to the public while officials work to repair the damage.
The Terracotta Army is regarded as one of China's greatest archaeological treasures and features a collection of more than 8,000 life-sized soldiers.
The figures date from around the late 200s BCE and were discovered on March 29, 1974, by local farmers just outside Xi'an.
In 2017, a man admitted to stealing a thumb from one of the Terracotta statues that was on display in Pennsylvania.
Footage showed him taking selfies with the statues before appearing to break something off.
The missing thumb was only noticed a month later and the FBI was called. More Trending
Michael Rohana, snapped it off at the the Franklin Institute museum from the statue which was estimated to be worth $4.5million.
By that figure, the damage to the statues in Xi'an could possible be $9million.
Rohana later admitted that he had kept the thumb in a drawer.
He was acquitted after his lawyer argued he was wrongly charged under laws that usually apply to major museum thefts.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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