A farmer in Belgium has accidentally redrew the French-Belgian border after he removed a stone which marks the boundary between the two countries.
The farmer, apparently annoyed by the stone in his tractor’s path, moved it 2.29m inside the French territory, BBC reported.
A local history enthusiast first noticed the discrepancy, while walking in the forest.
However, the incident has been met with smiles on both sides of the border.
"He made Belgium bigger and France smaller, it's not a good idea," David Lavaux, mayor of the Belgian village of Erquelinnes, told French TV channel TF1.
"I was happy, my town was bigger," the Belgian mayor added with a laugh. "But the mayor of Bousignies-sur-Roc didn't agree."
"We should be able to avoid a new border war," the amused mayor of the neighbouring French village, Aurélie Welonek, told La Voix du Nord.
The stone is positioned between the Belgian border village of Erquelinnes and Bousignies-sur-Roc, a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
Local Belgian authorities set to contact the farmer to ask him to return the stone to its original location. He could face criminal charges if he failed to comply with the directive.
"If he shows good will, he won't have a problem, we will settle this issue amicably," David Lavaux told Belgian news website Sudinfo.
The border between France and what is now Belgium stretches 620km (390 miles). It was formally established under the Treaty of Kortrijk, signed in 1820 after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo five years earlier. The stone dates back to 1819, when the border was first marked out.