Rescuers tried to rescue a Japanese trucker stuck in a sinkhole that was more than 24 hours deep on Wednesday, while residents were evacuated for fear of gas pipes breaking.
On Tuesday morning, emergency workers in Yashio City outside Tokyo were called to the scene after a road collapsed and a truck plunged into a hole the size of two cars.
A fire department official said that the driver could speak to the rescuers directly until Tuesday morning. However, the area surrounding the hole had become unstable and the rescuers were forced to retreat.
Another fire department spokesman said Wednesday that “rescue operations continued around-the-clock but we haven’t been able to contact the driver”. The driver, he added, was believed to be aged in his 70s.
Japan Today, citing police, reported that witnesses said the road had sunk before the truck crossed it.
A spokesman stated that a second sinkhole had opened nearby and residents in a radius of 650 feet were evacuated.
The second sinkhole was visible on aerial TV footage. It was only a few yards away and slightly larger than the first.
Around 1 am, the spokesperson said that the main body of the truck was removed from the first sinkhole.
The driver’s cabin, which is estimated to be 33 feet wide – roughly the same size as a swimming pool – and 20 feet deep – remains inside the hole.
A massive sinkhole appeared in 2016 on a five-lane road in Hakata (Japan). This sinkhole led to blackouts and traffic jams, but crews worked round the clock to repair the huge hole.
A sinkhole swallowed an SUV and its two occupants in Seoul, South Korea last year.
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