Sinkhole in Japan widens as rescuers try to save truck driver

Rescue workers successful Japan are trying to propulsion retired a motortruck operator from a sinkhole that appeared connected Tuesday and has since widened.

The sinkhole appeared successful Yashio metropolis successful Saitama prefecture, adjacent the superior Tokyo, swallowing a truck.

Rescue efforts person been hampered by roadworthy collapses, and officials person ordered scores of households successful the country to evacuate their homes.

The 74-year-old operator was past heard responding to rescuers connected Tuesday afternoon, according to section media.

While exigency crews managed to region the motortruck furniture from the pool-sized sinkhole, the driver's compartment remains buried nether ungraded and debris.

The spread measuring astir 10m (33ft) wide and 5m heavy archetypal appeared connected Tuesday greeting astatine a roadworthy junction.

It is believed to person been caused by an underground sewage tube rupturing.

Officials said that arsenic discarded h2o from the damaged tube flooded the hole, it caused a 2nd sinkhole to look connected Thursday.

Video footage showed a lamp station and a edifice signboard falling successful that collapse.

The roadworthy past collapsed further, merging the 2 sinkholes unneurotic to go a 20m-wide crater, further complicating the rescue operation.

The monolithic sinkhole besides contains a state pipeline, prompting fears of a imaginable leak. Officials person issued evacuation orders for 200 households successful the surrounding area.

They person besides urged residents successful and astir the metropolis to usage little water.

Sinkholes are progressively communal successful Japanese cities, arsenic galore person ageing sewage pipeline infrastructure.

In 2016, a elephantine sinkhole successful Fukuoka swallowed a five-lane thoroughfare in Fukuoka, disrupting power, h2o and transport. No superior injuries were reported.

Last August, a hunt for a pistillate who disappeared into a pavement sinkhole successful Kuala Lumpur's metropolis centre was called disconnected aft a week. Authorities deemed it "too risky" to proceed deploying divers into the underground sewer network, which had beardown currents and hard debris.