US crushes ton of ivory in New York’s Times Square

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell places a piece of confiscated ivory on to a belt to be crushed in New York's Times Square on June 19, 2015. -AFP

NEW YORK: A ton of illegal ivory carved into decorative objects was destroyed in New York’s Times Square on Friday as US officials denounced poaching that kills thousands of elephants a year.

Under the gaudy neon lights of the most famous square in the world, the objects -- most of them seized from the store of a jailed Philadelphia art dealer -- were placed one by one on a conveyor belt before being dropped into the crusher to the sound of applause.