Watch Sinkhole Swallow Four At Chinese Bus Stop

Surveillance footage has emerged online showing the moment that a sinkhole opened suddenly under the pavement at a bus stop in Heilongjiang Province, China, and swallowed four pedestrians.

China’s official Xinhua news agency posted on Wednesday a tweet and footage showing the incident that happened on Saturday.

The CCTV footage shows a small group of commuters waiting for a bus in Harbin, northeast Heilongjiang Province, when the pavement suddenly gives way under their feet and a gaping sinkhole appears.

Sinkhole opens near NE China bus stop, 4 people fall in #XinhuaTV pic.twitter.com/X77aAl2ixz

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 26, 2015

“Sinkhole opens near NE China bus stop, 4 people fall in #XinhuaTV pic.twitter.com/X77aAl2ixz
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) August 26, 2015”

Four people fall into the hole, while one person can be seen clinging to a steel beam at the edge of the hole.

According to local media reports, the hole was about two meters (6.5 feet) deep and about 10 square meters in diameter (107 square feet).

The surveillance footage shows bystanders helping the victims out of the hole. The people were then taken to a nearby hospital.

City authorities are reportedly investigating the incident.

The Telegraph reported in February, 2015, a similar incident in South Korea when two commuters fell into a 10-foot sinkhole that opened under their feet at a bus stop.

Surveillance footage showed the two commuters — a man and woman — getting off a bus onto what looked like solid pavement. But other passengers watched in horror as the pavement gave way suddenly, and the two plunged into a 10-foot hole that appeared.

Passersby pulled them out of the sinkhole, and fortunately, the two suffered only minor injuries.

Being swallowed by a sinkhole is one of the scariest experiences one can have. Our faith in the unyielding firmness of the ground beneath our feet makes a situation where the ground gives way a terrifying experience.

In urban areas, sinkholes are often caused by human activity such as drilling, mining and construction.

Collapsed underground artificial structures, water from broken underground pipes that erode mud and rock supporting the ground, or heavy structures built on top of weakened or soft soil could result in a sinkhole.

However, natural sinkholes are caused by acidic rainwater seeping through surface soil until it reaches a soluble bedrock, which gradually dissolves due to the corrosive action of the acidic water. The process, which can last hundreds or even thousands of years, creates large underground cavities which collapse when they become too weak to support themselves or man-made structures piled on top.

[Image: YouTube]