What happened?
Just after the sinkhole appeared in Yashio City, just northeast of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning a 3-ton truck fell into it. At first the sinkhole was roughly 10 meters (33 feet) wide and 5-meters (16-feet) deep, but it has since grown to twice that size.
What about the driver?
A 74-year-old man is believed to be trapped in the cabin of the flat-bed truck. He was conscious and communicating with rescue workers earlier but hasn’t responded since Tuesday afternoon, according to Yashio fire department official Yoshifumi Hashiguchi.
Rescue workers continue to search, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Related article
Pennsylvania grandmother is found dead days after fall into sinkhole, police say
What caused the sinkhole?
Saitama prefectural sewer system official Jun Uehara said corrosion, kraken5af44k24fwzohe6fvqfgxfsee4lgydb3ayzkfhlzqhuwlo33ad possibly because of strong acid constantly passing through the system, might have created a hole in the pipe, causing soil above to fall in and create a large hollow space between it and the road.
No problem was found with the pipe during its last visual inspection, which is required every five years. The sewage water leaking out of the damaged pipe may also cause flooding.