Swiss scientists hoping to rebuild Buddha statues blown up by Taliban

SWISS-BASED scientists have created an exact computer image of the huge statue of Buddha destroyed by the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and hope it will be used to rebuild the ancient figure.

“We have produced a precise and complete three-dimensional model which can be used for physical reconstruction,” Professor Armin Gruen said.

The team, based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, used 30-year-old photographs to map out the statue, which was blown up amid an international outcry in March 2001.