Pictured: Huge sinkhole swallows two cars in Italy
A large sinkhole appeared on a road in Naples on Wednesday morning and swallowed two cars, one with passengers inside.
The chasm appeared in the Italian city’s Vomero district around 4am, engulfing a vehicle occupied by two young men who were reportedly returning from university exam celebrations.
One of the men told the news site Fanpage that moments after the car plunged into the hole, a tree fell onto their vehicle and burst a pipe, causing the opening to begin filling with water.
Footage posted to social media showed panicked scenes as the passengers attempted to escape the vehicle under a torrent of gushing water.
Giulo Delle Donne, a local councillor, said: “It’s a miracle we are alive…It could have gone much, much worse.”
“The water pipe broke and we could have been submerged in water.”
The pair sustained only minor injuries after members of the Campania regiment of the Italian military came to their aid. The soldiers were stationed in the area as part of the city’s new safe streets initiative and pulled the men to safety.
The second car involved was parked and unoccupied at the time of the incident.
Gaetano Manfredi, the mayor of Naples, said poorly maintained sewer systems were at fault for the sinkhole in the southern city, Italian newspaper outlets have reported.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Naples City Council said local police, firemen and workers from the city’s water company were attending the scene.
This is not the first time a sinkhole has appeared in the southern-western city, with outlet The Local Italy reporting that a sewage pipe collapsed in the Via Manzoni area of Naples just last month.
