Two people have been detained after using an excavator to dig a hole in a section of the Great Wall of China, state broadcaster CCTV said.
The suspects admitted under questioning that they had used a digger to create a shortcut in the wall in a bid to reduce local travel time, state media reported.
Construction of the Great Wall, which is split into sections that in total stretch for thousands of kilometers, first began in the third century BC and continued for centuries.
The section of the Great Wall affected, situated about a six-hour drive west of central Beijing, dates back to China's Ming Dynasty of the 14th through 17th centuries.
State broadcaster CCTV reported Monday that the suspects had caused "irreversible damage" to the Ming-era wall, which was described as a "relatively intact" section of significant research value.
Images on Chinese state TV showed the aftermath of the scene, where a dusty road had been cut through a long, raised section of ground that appeared to be the remnants of the ancient barrier.
"Currently, the two suspects have been criminally detained in accordance with the law, and the case is continuing to be investigated," according to CCTV.
