South Korean rescuers are searching for a motorcyclist who fell into a large sinkhole that opened up on a road in the capital Seoul.
The man was riding his motorbike in the Gangdong district when he was swallowed by the sinkhole at 6:29pm local time (9:29am GMT).
Rescuers have so far found a mobile phone and the motorcycle in the hole which is 20m (65ft) wide and 20m deep, according to local media.
A car driver was also injured in the incident, which has gone viral on South Korean social media.
A dashcam video widely circulating online appears to show the moment the road caved in near a traffic junction. It shows the motorcyclist falling into the hole, while a car travelling in front of him narrowly escapes it.
Kim Chang-seop, head of Gangdong fire station said at a briefing that there are 2,000 tons of soil and water mixed inside the sinkhole and the rescue operation could take hours.
Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon chaired an emergency response meeting on Tuesday morning, discussing the rescue situation and follow-up measures.
Authorities have yet to reveal the cause of the sinkhole.
A report recently submitted to the Seoul city government show that 223 sinkholes have occurred in the city in the past decade.
In January, a truck driver went missing after his truck fell into a sinkhole at a junction in the Japanese city of Yashio.
Last August, a search for a woman who disappeared into a pavement sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre was called off after a week.
One of the most common reasons for a sinkhole is when rocks like limestone or chalk break down. Sometimes this process can happen gradually, where the depression becomes larger over time.
In other instances, the limestone sits below another layer of rock, which means that as it gets dissolved there are no immediate signs at the surface.
The overlying rock, sometimes clay or sandstone, will then suddenly collapse into the depression beneath – this is called a collapse sinkhole.
But human activities such as excavation works can also accelerate the formation of sinkholes or cause the ground to collapse in a similar way.
(BBC)
