Taiwan’s Keelung city government has stopped the demolition of a derelict shipyard due to lack of authorisation.
The Agenna yard on Peace Island could now be preserved as a historic site, the China Post reported.
Mayor Lin Yu-chang expressed his outrage this week after learning that workmen were starting to knock down its remaining structures.
The shipyard was built on land rented in the 1960s by a US company to construct commercial vessels.
It has featured in a number of domestic and overseas film productions since.
The site has been leased by an unnamed company from the Taiwan Sugar Company for 50 years.
This company said it did not think a demolition licence was necessary because the yard was defunct.
