THIS is the shocking moment a motorcyclist fell to his death after a giant sinkhole unexpectedly opened up before him in the middle of a Seoul street.
The 33-year-old man, identified by his surname Park, was found dead before noon on Tuesday after 17 hours of overnight search efforts.
Jam PressThe motorcyclist can be seen before he plunges into the hole, while a white vehicle in front of him narrowly escapes the sinkhole[/caption]
Jam PressThe motorcyclist driving behind a white vehicle before the sinkhole opens up[/caption]
AFPThe street with the sinkhole closed off with security tape[/caption]
Harrowing dash cam footage from a vehicle travelling behind him shows the biker plunging right into the sinkhole.
A white vehicle, driving ahead of the bike just before the road collapsed, was almost swallowed up by the sinkhole.
But the driver accelerated, causing the car to bounce back onto the road.
The shocking dash cam footage also shows the white vehicle narrowly escaping the horror.
The driver of the white vehicle only suffered minor injuries.
The motorcyclist’s body was found lying in a subway tunnel, 164 feet away from the centre of the pit.
The sinkhole, 65 feet wide and deep, appeared at an intersection in the Gangdong District in Seoul.
The man was riding his motorbike in the middle of the street when the ground suddenly opened up before him and he fell into the sinkhole.
Although the local fire department rushed to the scene, it took 17 hours for rescue workers to find the man’s body, requiring the help of excavators, shovels and other equipment.
They found his Japanese-made motorcycle and mobile phone before reaching his body, said emergency officer Kim Chang Seob at a televised briefing.
Seob added that the man was found wearing a helmet and motorcycle boots.
While it is not yet known how the sinkhole formed, the impact from the collapsed road also caused a water pipe to burst and water to spray everywhere.
According to a recent report by the Seoul city government, 223 sinkholes have opened in the city over the past decade.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the site on Monday night and asked authorities to investigate the sinkhole’s cause and prevent recurrences of similar incidents.
Sinkholes have also recently posed major safety risks in other countries.
Thousands of people are at risk of losing their homes after a terrifying sinkhole forced a Brazilian city into a state of emergency.
Shocking images from the city of Buriticupu, in the northeast of the Amazon Rainforest, show how the area was being swallowed up by the earth.
Homes were evacuated after a giant 65ft sinkhole appeared in the middle of a residential street in Surrey.
This was described as similar to “a scene from an earthquake”.
A giant sinkhole wreaked havoc on a major highway in New Jersey, shutting down a crucial stretch of an interstate for months.
The 15-foot-wide crater opened up in the median of the busy road, forcing authorities to close the westbound lanes.
APRescue authorities inspect the sinkhole in Seoul[/caption]
AFPThe sinkhole outside a plant shop on a street in Seoul[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
