Giant sinkhole swallows road

Tokyo: A giant sinkhole appeared in the middle of a busy Japanese city, swallowing part of a five-lane street near the main railway station. The gaping hole, around 30m wide, exposed support columns of nearby buildings at a traffic intersection in the southern city of Fukuoka, prompting fears of further collapses.

TV footage showed two separate holes steadily expanding as they sucked in asphalt and soil in front of the city’s Hakata Station, some time after 5am (local time).