Rescue underway as pool-sized sinkhole swallows truck and driver in Japan – National
A large sinkhole has opened up near Tokyo, swallowing a truck with a man inside, and now the race is on to rescue him.
Japanese emergency services in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture, received calls just before 10 a.m. local time Tuesday morning that the massive sinkhole had appeared in a busy intersection and a truck had plunged into the hole, according to CBS News.
A fire department spokesperson told AFP that the sinkhole is about the size of a swimming pool and approximately 33 feet wide and 20 feet deep.
Rescue efforts have been trying to reach the man who was driving the truck, NBC News reports, but had to adjust their operations after a few hours as the sinkhole grew more unstable.
The driver of the truck was “initially conscious and capable of talking,” reports local news outlet The Mainichi, and has been trapped in the driver’s seat under mud and sand. Two rescuers sustained minor injuries after they ventured into the hole and sediment fell on them.
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“Now, we’re trying to see if we can pull up the truck using a large crane,” the spokesperson told AFP. “There is risk that the hole will collapse.”
Motohiro Ono, the governor of the Saitama Prefecture, said in a press briefing they believe the sinkhole may have been caused by a sewer pipe running from the nearby Nakagawa River Basin.
“It is thought to have been caused by a crack in the Nakagawa River Basin sewer pipe. As a result of this collapse, a passing truck fell in,” Ono said, per NBC News.
The Mainichi reports that sediment surrounding the heavily corroded pipe is believed to have flowed into the pipe, resulting in a hollow area under the road, which eventually collapsed under the weight of the vehicles above.
According to Nippon TV station, the main focus is rescuing the driver, and they report that rescue teams have been pumping air through a hole in the sediment to help give the man more oxygen as he’s increasingly surrounded by sediment.
As of publication time, the status of the driver is unclear.
Aerial footage from local broadcasters Tuesday morning showed dozens of response vehicles on the scene, which sits to the north of Japan’s capital, Tokyo.
There have been previous instances of sinkholes opening up in Japan causing chaos for drivers.
In 2016, an Olympic pool-sized sinkhole opened up in the streets of downtown Fukuoka, swallowing up five lanes of a busy street and prompting the evacuation of residents in nearby buildings. Fortunately, there were no injuries, but the incident cut off power, water and gas supplies to parts of the city.
And in September 2024, an underground water pipe in Hiroshima caused a sinkhole when it burst. Several people were trapped in nearby buildings and had to be rescued by the fire department.
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