Huge sinkhole causes 380 people to be evacuated from Naples neighbourhood in Italy
Around 95 families had to be found emergency accommodation
Lamiat Sabin
Monday 23 February 2015
Naples residents woke up to a massive sinkhole yesterday morning that led to hundreds of people being evacuated from the area in the Italian city.
The junction of two residential streets collapsed at around 5am.
No damage was done to surrounding buildings but 380 people in the area had to be found emergency accommodation as a precautionary measure, according to Italian newspaper Il Mattino.
A woman who lived at number 131 heard “a huge thud” and looked out to see a car falling into the pit above a disused underground rail tunnel.
Families had to be found alternative accommodation in hotels
The hole will be filled with concrete once it has been inspected for any further potential damage.
Once the area has been declared safe enough, the 95 families will be allowed to return to their homes, the newspaper reported.
Sinkholes usually occur when soluble bedrock such as limestone gets dissolved by water and drainage.
A sinkhole around 40ft wide in Kentucky, US, swallowed eight rare classic cars costing millions of dollars in total at a museum earlier this month.
Shortly before that in the UK, a 30ft-deep hole in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, took down a car and a family were told not to sleep in their nearby house in case of potential further damage.
