A 15-year-old Chinese tourist has caused an international outcry after a picture of his graffiti on a wall of the ancient Luxor Temple was shared on Chinese social networks.

The message ‘Ding Jinhao was here’ scrawled over a carved scene on the temple wall depicting Alexander the Great was photographed by a group of Chinese tourists, who according to Chinese blogs failed in attempts to remove the marks.

According to AFP, Jinhao was subsequently targeted by Chinese hackers, and his parents issued an apology to Egyptians and to the Chinese, saying that their son had “cried all night.”

The Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities told Ahram Online that it had assigned an archaeological committee to investigate the incident and examined the damages caused. The committee has reported that the marks made by Jinhao are superficial and can be easily removed.

Minister Ahmed Eissa told Ahram Online that the section of the temple wall can easily be restored to its original appearance.

In order to prevent the repetition of such incidents in the future, Eissa said that he had ordered the Luxor archaeological inspectorate to assign an archaeologist to escort any tourist delegations during their visit, and would increase the number of inspection tours carried out at the city's archaeological sites.