The colonial-era statue of a woman caressing a gazelle has mysteriously disappeared from a busy roundabout in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, "Art Daily" reports.

The historic bronze was removed in the early hours of Tuesday by “unidentified men who were probably offended by its nudity for religious reasons," a witness told AFP. Although the authors of the removal remain unknown, many locals blame Islamist militias.

This is not the first attack directed towards the iconic statue, which was sculpted by an Italian artist in the early 1930s, when Libya was an Italian colony.