Easter Island’s famous stone heads – the Moai – were charred by a fire on October 3 and suffered “irreparable damage”, according to local Indigenous and Chilean authorities.
The fire was caused by the nearby Rano Raraku volcano on the island, and razed more than 100 hectares of the island, damaging the four-metre-high megaliths which were created by a Polynesian tribe over 500 years ago.
Rapa Nui National Park, where 386 of the Moai are located, is currently closed to tourists while conservationists investigate the extent of the losses, the Rapa Nui council confirmed in a Facebook post.
The Unesco World Heritage-listed island lies 3 500km off the coast of Chile and is the most remote inhabited island in the world.
