Road suddenly opens up beneath his wheels and man falls into a 10-metre-deep canyon
On January 28, a hole 10 metres in diameter and 10 metres deep suddenly formed on a road in Yashio (a town on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan).
A truck driver, taken by surprise, was unfortunately unable to avoid the fall. His truck had been trapped in the hole, now the size of an Olympic swimming pool, for over 5 days. Indeed, as the days went by, the cavity continued to grow, and is now 40 meters wide, reports the media outlet Demotivateur.
A delicate, large-scale operation is currently underway to save the 74-year-old truck driver, trapped in the passenger compartment of his vehicle. Initially, emergency services attempted to extract him using a crane. Only the rear of the truck could be pulled out, and to make matters worse, another hole formed as a result of a mudslide, cutting off all possible contact with the victim.
And while the second hole was soon filled with waste water emanating from underground conduits, a water removal operation also had to be carried out. As Demotivateur reports, 200 homes in the area had to be evacuated, for fear of the gas pipes.
On Saturday, rescue workers completed the construction of a 30-metre-long slope to reach the driver. A race against time has now begun, as the passenger compartment is buried in mud. At present, the origin of the abyss remains unknown.
(MH with AsD - Source: Demotivateur - Illustration: Unsplash)