A person has died after a humongous 65ft sinkhole opened up and swallowed a motorist.
The body of a 33-year-old man was recovered from the crater, which suddenly appeared in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday.
The man, identified via his surname Park, was driving through the Gangdong district of the capital when tragedy struck at around 6.30pm local time.
Dashcam footage shows the hole suddenly appearing in the middle of a busy street, with the motorbike being swallowed instantly.
The body of a 33-year-old man was recovered from the crater
Getty
It took rescuers almost 18 hours to locate Park, who was found 50m away from the centre of the crater.
Digging through dirt “with their hands”, he was “found intact, still wearing his helmet and motorcycle boots.”
The 33-year-old had no pulse and was unconscious, the Gangdong-gu Fire Department said during a briefing on Tuesday.
Kim Chang-seob, a fire rescue official, told a press briefing the man “was discovered in cardiac arrest”.
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Dashcam footage shows the hole suddenly appearing in the middle of a busy street
Getty
The exact cause of death had yet to be determined.
During an overnight search operation, his phone was found at around 1.37am, with his bike being found two hours later.
A white car, which was passing just before the road collapsed, was damaged. It managed to narrowly avoid the crash, dashcam footage showing it violently bouncing as it just avoided being sucked into the hole.
The driver, identified as 48-year-old Heo Mo, was injured and taken to a hospital.
The accident occurred at a site where there were maintenance works under way
Reuters
Mo told a local outlet: “I heard thunder from somewhere while I was driving and then I lost consciousness for about 10 seconds. When I came to, I couldn’t see a single car in front of me, and when I looked back, I saw a large hole.
“I tried to move forward again because I was afraid the car would fall into the hole again, but the car wouldn’t move and the door wouldn’t open, so I barely managed to get out through the window.
"The accident happened before I had time to step on the brakes. I think I was able to avoid falling into the sinkhole because the car didn’t stop and kept going forward.”
The accident occurred at a site where there were maintenance works under way.
A Seoul city spokesman said the construction work could have been one of “several possible contributing factors”.
“There were several factors at play. Once the surrounding soil and debris are cleared, we will conduct a full investigation into the cause of the accident with a team of experts,” they said.
