Four people in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province were stunned when the ground underneath their feet gave way as they stood waiting at a bus top.

A security camera recorded the moment at 5:40pm on August 22 on Guxiang Boulevard in Harbin. One woman is seen clinging to a pipe after the collapse, while another woman and two men fell to the bottom of the three meter-deep hole.

Just prior to the collapse, a crowd of people are seen walking through, indicating this could have been even worse.

Some people at the scene helped the victims get out of the ten square meter hole, while others on the stairwell simply watched and then walked away.

The victims were sent to a Harbin hospital where they were treated for various injuries including sprains and abrasions. Police cordoned off an area 100 meters around the sinkhole as workers attempted to make repairs.

There still has been no official word as to what caused the sinkhole, although an investigation is said to be pending. The hole was repaired the day after it appeared, and reports say business in the area has returned to normal.

Sinkholes in China have become a regular occurrence.

This past May, two pedestrians were injured when a  two meter-deep sinkhole appeared beneath their feet in Duchang, Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi also had another sinkhole back in March when three students were swallowed by a three meter-deep hole in Pingxiang.

In June 2013, a grandmother and her grandson were swallowed up by a three meter-deep hole in Shenzhen. In June 2010, a women was swallowed up by a hole in Chengdu after rains had been pelting the city for days.

Here’s the video of the incident in Harbin:

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The sinkhole measured 1.6 meters deep, five meters wide, and six meters long. After the car was picked up by a crane, the area was cordoned off and a tarp was placed over the hole to keep the water out.

State media blamed the heavy rainfalls that have been plaguing the PRD. A local water supplier blamed the city’s underground pipe system, built in 1994, for causing erosion under city streets.

Over the past two years, sinkholes have popped up all over Shenzhen. In 2014 alone, ten sinkholes opened up throughout the city, killing some residents. By 2016, Shenzhen will have spent a total of RMB 2.4 billion to prevent sinkholes from occurring through “underground space management and ground collapse prevention” measures.

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• Sinkhole in the Middle of a Guangzhou Road

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The one on the Shenzhen Beihuan Avenue, measuring 10 square meters and 4 meters deep, resulted in five injuries including the driver and four passengers, the newspaper said. No one was injured in the second sinkhole and construction is already underway to repair the road.

The taxi’s left front wheel plunged into the cavity and fell off its axle. The driver was left with a fractured ankle and the four passengers all had different bruises, the report said.

Sinkholes have been plaguing Shenzhen for a while. Last year, 10 sinkholes were discovered in the city causing several deaths and injuries, according to the report.

Construction workers are repairing the sinkhole on the Beihuan Avenue in Shenzhen

In addition to water erosion, the sinkholes are caused by the city’s old underground water pipes, according to Shenzhen Water China Group. The water pipes were first installed in the city in 1994, but the company said the shoddy quality of the pipes is leading to erosion.

One netizen wrote: “Shenzhen sinkholes have caused six deaths and seven injuries so far. If you are afraid of talking lifts, you can still use the stairs. But if you are worried about the road, what else are you supposed to do?”

Another one wrote: “The most reassuring thing in the world is keeping one’s feet on the ground. But why do I even have to worry about the ground now?”

 Home page and content photo credit: www.china.com

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Now for the clean-up operation, image courtesy of Southern Metropolis Daily

Local residents near the scene of the sinkhole on Yankui Road had noticed several road signs had been collapsing in recent weeks and that sediment had slid onto a nearby basketball court from the road.

Geng Xueming was driving a delivery truck at 6:15 a.m. when the ground opened up beneath his vehicle. He told reporters that he climbed out himself before calling the police. The vehicles were lifted out by crane and the road was cordoned off.

Deputy Mayor Lu Ruifeng arrived at the scene that afternoon to oversee the investigation, which found the culvert under the road, which was built in 1983, needed to be renovated. A collapsing culvert was also the cause of a sinkhole in Granby, Massachussets in the United States last week.

The Shenzhen Meterological Bureau pointed to the fact that the Xiaomeisha area where the accident took place has seen some of the heaviest rain in the city over the past week, which of course increases the likelihood of a sinkhole.

Headlines were made around the world when a 26 year-old security guard was fatally swallowed up by a sinkhole in Futian District in March and when five died in a sinkhole in Longgang District in May. But, to have a sense of perspective, sinkholes are far from a major cause of death, even in Shenzhen.

h/t Hug China.

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The aftermath, image courtesy of Southern Metropolis Daily

It follows the two sinkholes in Shenzhen that made headlines around the world this year: the one in Futian District in March in which the ground disappeared beneath a security guard’s feet and the one in Longgang District in May in which five people were buried alive.

There have also been a number of smaller ones which led to no fatalities, such as the one in June which occurred in a greenbelt in Luohu District.

Sunday’s sinkhole, which opened in Longhua New Zone, saw one of the injured require 9 stitches in his arm.

Due to heavy rain in the previous days, locals sensed there was a chance the road would collapse, so told the police. However, the police dismissed their claims and, lo-and-behold, on Sunday morning the sinkhole opened up just outside 32 Longfa Road.

Two of the injured were staff from the nearby Meijia Suermarket and one of those to fall in was a 12 year-old boy, but he sustained no injuries.

Local officials, such as Longhua Party Secretary Jiang Jianjun, demanded an investigation. However, nobody suggested this would not happen again.

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Not so for this threat: the random occurrence of the ground just suddenly giving way. It happened yesterday afternoon in Shenzhen, sucking up a security guard who just happened to be walking past.  He died from his injuries. Take a look at this shocking video:

The incident, which happened in Futian District, opened up a 5-by-8-metre sinkhole that was apparently 4 stories deep.

This isn’t the first time the ground has suddenly given way in China. One of the most recent cases happened in Guangzhou, when a building suddenly collapsed into a sinkhole.

Be careful out there.

Source: Beijing Cream

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