A man has told of his narrow escape after waking up just in time to raise the alarm as his canal boat and those of others were swallowed by a sinkhole.
Emergency services declared a major incident after the 50-metre-long crater breached the Llangollen canal in England’s West Midlands, leaving boats teetering on the edge of a steep drop or stuck at the bottom of the cavity.
Bob Wood, 75, said he had been sleeping on his boat when the sinkhole appeared, but woke up in time to jump off and alert those in a vessel next to him by hammering on its side.
“I was in the boat asleep and I thought I needed to go to the toilet, so I got up and thought: ‘We are leaning a bit,’” he said. “I thought I was in the middle of a big storm. There was the sound of a lot of water.
“I opened the back door to see why we were tilting and realised it was not raining at all and it was the water running away under the boat. I jumped on the back and stepped off, and that bit was going down at that second. The back went eight foot in the air and I landed on my front.”
Wood moored his boat, which he has lived on for eight years, on Sunday night. He said he watched it go down nose-first on Monday morning, and that his neighbour got out just in time before his craft went down backwards.
Other people in the vicinity thought they were caught up in an earthquake when the collapse began, and there were fears that water would flood into the nearby town of Whitchurch.
There are no reported casualties and people were being assisted by the fire service, according to West Mercia police.
Shropshire fire and rescue service said it had received reports of a canal bank collapse at about 4.22am, with large volumes of water escaping into surrounding land. “Three boats had been caught in a developing sinkhole approximately 50 metres by 50 metres in size and crews helped more than 10 members of the public to safety,” it said in a statement.
“Firefighters have been working in challenging conditions with unstable ground and rapidly moving water. Crews immediately established upstream and downstream safety sectors and began mitigating water flow using barge boards and water gate systems.”
Scott Hurford, the fire service area manager, said about 12 residents from boats moored nearby were being supported and relocated to a welfare centre at the former Whitchurch police station.
He added: “A major incident was declared at 5.17am. However, as of 8.30am, the situation was stable with water flow reduced and there is no ongoing search and rescue activity.”
The breach took place on the Llangollen canal near New Mills Lift Bridge in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The canal was among those flagged this year by the Inland Waterways Association as being an “amber risk”.
The independent charity has mapped Britain’s network of canals and rivers, which are under strain from funding shortfalls and growing climate pressures, and flagged those at particular financial and environmental risk.
Areas of concern included the Midlands, where higher-ground reservoirs feed several canal systems and where droughts are expected to worsen.
The Canal and River Trust, a charity that maintains 2,000 miles of historic canals and rivers in England and Wales said it is investigating the cause of Monday’s incident and working with agencies to restore water levels on either side of the breach as soon as possible.
At the scene, Sho Abdul, a member of the Shropshire county council cabinet, told the Shropshire Star newspaper: “There are three or four canal boats that have been impacted by the sinkhole, which rapidly happened. The lack of casualties is an absolute miracle.
“We were so shocked when we saw it. It’s an absolute crater, it’s devastating, especially for the people who use this area often.”
