Moment tourist damages 2,000-year-old terracotta warrior statues at Chinese museum

Two Chinese terracotta warrior statues, thought to be around 2,000 years old, were damaged after a tourist climbed over a museum fence.

Public security officials say the 30-year-old was visiting the museum housing the terracotta army in the city of Xi’an on Friday when he “climbed over the guardrail and the protective net and jumped”.

The man “pushed and pulled” the clay warriors and two were “damaged to varying degrees”, the statement said.

The man, who was said to “suffer from mental illness”, was detained by security and removed from the museum.

The 8,000-strong terracotta army once guarded the tomb of the first emperor and is considered a symbol of ancient Chinese artistic and military sophistication.