Photo/Illutration A 2016 photo taken at the Seattle Peace Park shows the statue of Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, adorned with colorful paper cranes left by visitors. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

SAN FRANCISCO--A bronze statue honoring a young survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, whose story of plucky courage touched the hearts of millions around the world, has gone missing from the Peace Park in Seattle.

The statue, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” by artist Daryl Smith, celebrated the life of Sadako Sasaki, who was exposed to radiation when she was just 2 years old and died of leukemia at the age of 12.

The theft comes amid a rise in metal thefts across the United States, driven by soaring scrap metal prices.

A visitor to the park noticed the theft around noon on July 12. All that was left was Sasaki’s cleanly severed feet, according to police.

Before her death, the girl folded more than 1,000 origami paper cranes from her hospital bed as part of her efforts to get well.

Sasaki was the model for the famous monument in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and became a global icon in the drive for nuclear disarmament.

The statue in Seattle depicted her holding an origami crane in her right hand. The statue’s arms had previously been severed in 2003 and 2012, according to local media reports.

In February, part of a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial statue in Denver was stolen and sold to a scrap metal dealer. The suspect was arrested.

According to The New York Times, approximately 300 kilometers of electrical wiring has been stolen in the Las Vegas area over the past two years.

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