A huge sinkhole has opened in the centre of a Japanese city, prompting concern for commercial buildings perched precariously on its edge.
Photographs on social media showed the sinkhole forming in front of the main railway station in the south-western city of Fukuoka shortly after 5am.
【現場画像まとめ】博多駅前 2丁目交差点付近の道路が陥没し大きな穴 周辺が停電やガス漏れ11月8日 - NAVER まとめ https://t.co/UEdxmWXNuR #博多駅 午前8時現在の穴 pic.twitter.com/en0k6QhWOQ
— アーマード金閣寺 (@kinkakuji09) November 7, 2016
By mid-morning an entire section of a main road had caved in and the 20 metre-wide hole had started to fill with water.
The road’s sudden collapse caused power cuts and gas leaks.
People working in nearby buildings, including a 7-Eleven store right on the edge of the sinkhole, were told to evacuate. There were no reports of injuries.
The city’s government said it believed the collapse was connected to construction work on a nearby underground train line.
“The electricity went off suddenly and I head a loud boom,” Kyodo news agency quoted a witness a witness as saying.
“I went outside and saw a huge hole.”
Another local worker said: “The road has collapsed near my office and now I can’t go to work because we’ve been told to evacuate.”
