All arrested for destroying relics
Police in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province arrested three people Monday for swiping bricks from a 1,000-year-old Buddhist tower in the belief they would help their elderly relatives live longer, local media reported.
The suspects, two men and one woman, are middle-aged tourists from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local police said.
Tourists at Leifeng Pagoda called police after they saw the trio climb over a glass barrier and remove two bricks, the Zhejiang-based Youth Times reported Thursday.
Officers arrived at the site and took the suspects into custody.
The unnamed suspects told police they had intended to build a shrine around the bricks at home to protect their elderly family members.
They had also planned to remove some soil from the site to prepare a medicinal "tea" for their relatives.
Police said the three face charges of stealing cultural relics. The case is under investigation.
