TOURISTS at a popular holiday spot have landed in hot water for fondling the breasts of a naked marble sculpture.

The offenders face being banned from tourist areas as the incident comes at a time when Chinese officials are clamping down on what has been labelled “uncivilised behaviour”.

Several men visiting Huaqing Pool, a complex of popular hot springs, were spotted taking photographs with their hands on the breasts of the sculpture in Xi’an city, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

The pictures went viral on social media, drawing immediate criticism from many who accused the tourists of being disrespectful.

But others claimed officials were to blame because they allowed the iconic naked sculpture to be erected and then grabbed in the first place.

Many tourists who pay to enter exhibitions believe it is their right to pose with sculptures in whatever manner they wish.

But one man was recently black-listed for taking photos of himself while sitting on the head of a Red Army bronze statue at a memorial park.

Amazingly, he was banned from visiting China’s scenic parks for 10 years.

The marble sculpture now in question is that of historical figure Yang Guifei, the beloved wife of Tang Dynasty (618-907) Emperor Xuanzong and one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China.

During the An Lushan Rebellion, as Emperor Xuanzong and his cortege were fleeing from the capital Chang’an to Chengdu, the emperor’s guards demanded that he put Yang, 37, to death because they blamed the rebellion on her cousin Yang Guozhong and the rest of her family.

The emperor capitulated and reluctantly ordered his attendant Gao Lishi to strangle Yang to death.