A gigantic sinkhole has opened in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka, swallowing huge sections of road near underground work to extend a subway tunnel.
An 8 meter-wide hole was first reported early Tuesday, according to Motohisa Oda, a crisis management officer from the city of Fukuoka.
Nearby residents were evacuated, and five major roads cordoned off in Hakata ward in Fukuoka’s business district.
The gaping hole — which started off as two smaller ones before merging into the larger cavity — appeared 300 meters from the JR Hakata railway station.
The sinkhole is now a whopping 27 meters wide, 30 meters long and 15 meters deep.
It is filled with water that seeped in from sewage pipes destroyed by collapsing sections of road.