AKIPRESS.COM - The mayor of Easter Island has called for motor restrictions to be put in place in the area after a truck collided with a sacred stone statue.

Pedro Edmunds Paoa told local media that the incident had caused "incalculable" damage, BBC reported.

A Chilean man who lives on the island was arrested on Sunday and charged with damaging a national monument, local media report.

The platform on which the statue was mounted was also destroyed.

Stone statues were carved by the indigenous Rapa Nui people to embody the spirit of a prominent ancestor.

About 1,000 of the figures - known as moai - exist on the island, which hosts about 12,000 tourists a month.

"Everyone decided against establishing traffic rules when it came to vehicles on sacred sites - but we, as a council, were talking about the dangers and knew very well what the rise in tourist and resident numbers could mean", Mr Edmunds Poa told the El Mercurio newspaper.

"They didn't listen to us and this is the result," he said.