Rome, Mar. 28, (dpa/GNA) – A huge hole in the ground has torn open a street in the south-east of the Italian capital and swallowed two parked cars.
The hole, which is around 10 metres deep and 10 metres in diameter, opened up in the early hours of Thursday morning, Italian media reported, citing the local police. Photos and videos of the gaping crater quickly went viral on social media.
There were no reports of casualties, and the emergency services said there were no people on the street during the incident. Local police and firefighters were at the scene.
During the night, the police closed the road and secured the affected area in the Quadraro neighbourhood. As can be seen in photos, there were other cars parked right next to the hole that had to be removed.
Sinkholes often open up in major Italian cities. At the end of February, a hole in Naples in southern Italy swallowed up several cars in a busy neighbourhood.
In Rome, too, such incidents are far from rare. One of the reasons for this is the age of Italy’s capital, with excavation and construction work being carried out for many hundreds of years.
Occasionally, heavy rainfall also causes layers of subsoil to be washed away.