A peculiar granite monument that some have dubbed "America's Stonehenge" but a conservative politician condemned as "satanic" has been torn down by authorities in rural Georgia hours after it was heavily damaged in a bombing by vandals. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) later tweeted a video clip of the blast caught on surveillance camera and separate footage of a car speeding away from the scene. It said the remainder of the structure was deliberately demolished later in the day "for safety reasons", with a photo showing the entire monument reduced to rubble. The initial damage was attributed to "unknown individuals" who detonated an explosive device at the site. Before it was vandalised, the 6-metre-high (19ft) monument consisted of one upright slab at the centre of four larger tablets arranged around it, with a large rectangular capstone placed atop the others. The collection of gray monoliths was erected in 1980. The slabs were engraved with an enigmatic message in 12 languages calling for the preservation of humankind by limiting the world's population to fewer than half a billion people to live "in perpetual balance with nature", according to official translations of the text. But the monument drew occasional controversy from some who tied its message to far-right conspiracies or religious blasphemy.