CHONGQING, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Two statues of the Dazu rock carvings, a World Heritage Site in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, were beheaded by robbers, local cultural heritage authorities and police revealed.

    The two statue heads, one of a Guanyin, or goddess of mercy, ofthe Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), and one of a one-leg Buddhist god, were found stolen on Feb. 11, police authorities said. The latter one was a clay statue carved in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) as a replacement to its predecessor which was damaged.

    The two statues were located in the Shimenshan area, which was 30 km to the county seat of Dazu.

    Local police were investigating the case, but currently could not reveal the details of their investigation, police authorities said.

    The World Heritage Site, which was listed in 1999, has over 40 groups of carvings with more than 50,000 individual pieces. It is believed that the carvings could be traced to the late Tang Dynasty (618-907). Enditem