A section of road suddenly collapsed in Bangkok on Wednesday causing a deep sinkhole of about 50 meters. The city governor cited ongoing "underground construction" works as the primary reason behind the incident, local reports said.The crater measured roughly 30 by 30 meters, according to an Khaosod English report. A dramatic video showed the exact moment the road gave way, swallowing a car and an electric pole. “Soil above began flowing into the tunnel and the underground construction spaces. This caused the road surface to collapse, dragging down electrical poles and rupturing water pipes. The broken pipes then washed even more soil into the tunnel, making the situation worse,” the report quoted Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt saying.Videos from the moment of the collapse are now going viral on social media.
One of the videos shared by Russian-state run RT shows the moment when the collapse happened. It began with the road slowly sinking down, pulling down several electricity poles and damaging water pipes.At one point the hole widened up to the edge of a police station and exposed its underground structure. A nearby hospital was forced to shut down services due to the sinkhole. The hospital authorities said they would close the outpatient services for two days. The Bangkok city officials said the hospital’s structure was not affected, but people were ordered to be evacuated from the police station and other nearby buildings.Officials have also cut electricity and water in the area.
Chadchart said relevant authorities are working to fix the hole as fast as they could amid concerns that heavy rain could cause further damage. Bangkok is currently in monsoon season. Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster prevention department, told AFP that the collapse was likely caused by the recent heavy rain and a leaky pipe."There was a leak in the water pipe -- water from the pipe eroded (earth) under the road so this incident happened," he said.Suriyachai further said, "The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse."The subway station was being built by the state-run Mass Rapid Transit Authority, which said it would probe the cause of the cave-in.