Police have been called to a Wallsend street after a sinkhole started to appear.
Officers diverted traffic after the hole appeared outside a Station Lane takeaway on Wednesday afternoon.
One witnesses praised North Tyneside Council officials who "caught it quickly" and stopped it expanding further.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: "Shortly after 1.30pm today (Wednesday), police received a report that a sinkhole had appeared near La Pizzeria.
"The local authority have been informed."
The hole appeared yards from both Wallsend Metro Station and a branch of Asda.
One local worker, who asked not to be named, said: "When we left work at 2pm, there were numerous police cars and vans parked up outside.
"Police were standing in the road and there were about six or seven officers, but we couldn't work out what was going on and cars were getting diverted around them."
This isn't the first sinkhole to have appeared on Tyneside in recent years.
In 2016, a huge crater closed the A1 in Gateshead after opening up in the middle of the carriageway.
And in October 2017, a 20ft sinkhole opened up on in Craster Square in Gosforth.
They appear when a surface collapses.
While they are almost impossible to prevent, they are very rare.
It is understood that North Tyneside Council Highways team is on site to make the area safe with barriers and has introduced a priority system for traffic.
An investigation into the cause of the sinkhole will take place on Thursday.
