Flames engulf giant Buddha statue housed in ancient Chinese temple

A giant Buddha statue in China was engulfed in flames just a year after state-of-the-art fire prevention technology was installed.

Footage shows the sacred statue at the Shandan Great Buddha Temple, Gansu province, on fire in the early hours of Monday 24 July.

The statue itself was visibly exposed with some areas of its body seemingly blackened by smoke and cracked by the intense heat.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and extinguished the blaze by 10am and no injuries were reported.

The statue was built in 1998 as a replica of an original which is thought to have dated back to around 425 AD, with the older iteration damaged during China’s Cultural Revolution.