Vandals smash Chinese New Year ice sculpture in Chinatown – Calgary | 24CA News
The Chinatown BIA is in search of solutions after one among its Lunar New Year ice sculptures was destroyed exterior of a well-liked Chinatown restaurant on Friday afternoon.
Anissa Wong with the Chinatown BIA says the act of vandalism occurred round 6 p.m. exterior the Silver Dragon Restaurant. Despite there not being any safety cameras within the space on the time of the incident, she says witnesses who noticed every part did alert the homeowners of the Silver Dragon.
“And tell us the ice sculpture downstairs has been broken and it’s been destroyed by a group of teenagers, but we don’t know them at all and don’t have any footage,” says Anissa.
According to Anissa, witnesses described the youngsters between 16 and 20 years of age.
The 5 sculptures had been put in ultimately month partially with the 15-day Chinese New Year celebrations.
While the incident has left one of many BIA’s 5 ice sculptures in rubbles, Anissa says its additionally left extra questions than solutions.
“I don’t know why they want to do that,” says Anissa. “Maybe it’s for fun or maybe it’s something like hate but we are not able to confirm,” she added.
Read extra:
Chinatown neighborhood members step as much as battle random assaults, graffiti vandalism
Read subsequent:
U.S. shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon over Atlantic ocean
This 12 months marks the fifth-consecutive 12 months the sculptures have been put in in collaboration with the Chinatown Ice Sculpture Showcase (CISS).
Each of the sculptures depicts a vibrant rabbit signifying the 12 months of the rabbit, one among twelve animals within the Chinese Zodiac.
Due to the dimensions of the sculptures, ward 7 councillor and former Chinatown BIA government director Terry Wong says he doesn’t imagine the alleged act of vandalism was random.
“These ice sculptures are extremely thick and hard to knock over,” says Wong.
“What I heard yesterday was round six or seven o clock final evening some individual got here by with a blowtorch melted it and knocked it over. So when you can think about that, it’s unbelievable
The Calgary police at the moment are investigating the incident and Councillor Wong says town has requested police so as to add extra patrols to the world whereas the sculptures are on show for the subsequent week.
He says regardless of the alleged act of vandalism, it gained’t hinder the neighborhood’s celebrations.
“This is still Chinese New Years, so we want people to come down,” says Wong.
“You see a lot of people down here (on Saturday) enjoying it. It’s unfortunate we don’t have an ice sculpture for them to look at.”
Anyone with details about the incident is requested to contact the Calgary police or Crime Stoppers.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
