A Canadian teen has been accused of carving a name into a UNESCO World Heritage site in Japan and was questioned by police, according to local media.
‘Julian’ scratched into Toshodaiji Temple in Nara prefecture: Kyodo News Agency
A Canadian teen has been accused of carving a name into a UNESCO World Heritage site in Japan and was questioned by police, according to local media.
The 17-year-old boy allegedly carved the name “Julian” with his nails into a pillar at the Toshodaiji Temple in Nara prefecture, the Kyodo News Agency reported on Friday citing local police.
Nara is about 45 kilometres south of Kyoto.
The report said staff at the Buddhist temple were alerted by a Japanese tourist who witnessed the alleged vandalism, and the teen was subsequently questioned by authorities on suspicion of violating the cultural properties protection law.
The Toshodaiji Temple was built about 1,250 years ago, according to its website. It was among eight monuments of ancient Nara that were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998.
World Heritage temple in Nara vandalized by visiting foreign teen<a href=”https://t.co/hvEOewHeUQ”>https://t.co/hvEOewHeUQ</a><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/KyodoNewsPlus?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#KyodoNewsPlus</a>
—@kyodo_english
The incident in Nara follows a similar recent event in Italy when a video surfaced showing a British tourist carving names into the Colosseum in Rome.
Italian officials have vowed to find and punish the tourist who carved “Ivan+Haley 23” on the wall of the ancient Roman structure.
With files from The Associated Press
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