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Video: Pune civic body truck falls into sinkhole, driver escapes unhurt
The driver of the jetting machine truck, used for cleaning drainage lines, escaped unhurt after it fell into a sinkhole.
A truck belonging to the civic sanitation department in Maharashtra's Pune fell into a sinkhole that opened up near the City Post Office on Friday. The driver of the jetting machine truck, used for cleaning drainage lines, was unharmed, news agency PTI reported citing fire brigade officials.
The incident occurred at 4 pm in the densely populated Budhwar Peth area. In a video shared by PTI, the large truck can be seen sinking into the sinkhole dramatically, while locals rushed to the scene as the rear of the truck slid into the pit after the surface, made of interlocking cement blocks, collapsed.
The driver narrowly escaped unharmed at the last moment as a local rushed to the scene and helped him out of the sinking truck's driver seat.
“The news was that it was not on any public road but on the postal premises wherein there was an old well earlier and it has now been covered with slab. Since this drainage vehicle is heavy, this incident happened. Now it has been removed with the help of 2 cranes...Investigation will be done...No injuries reported,” Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Commissioner Rajendra Bhosale was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Efforts to retrieve the truck were ongoing.
Watch video here:
Similar incidents
A 48-year-old Indian tourist, Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, fell into a sinkhole at Jalan Masjid in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last Friday. Reports indicate that she was walking on a pavement when it suddenly collapsed, causing her to drop 26 feet.
A video circulated on social media captures the moment she fell, shocking onlookers as she disappeared into the 8-meter-deep sinkhole. A search operation was launched immediately but was called off after nine days due to safety concerns.
The Straits Times shared a video earlier this month featuring Gali's family performing rituals, which also includes footage of the tragic incident in which she was swallowed by the sinkhole in mere seconds.
In another incident in August, two people were injured in Seoul, South Korea, when a sinkhole suddenly opened up and engulfed the car they were in.
Local media reports indicate that the sinkhole appeared unexpectedly on a road in the Seodaemun district. According to the Korea Herald, the white SUV “rolled over sideways” as it crashed into the sinkhole. A woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s were inside the vehicle at the time of the accident and have since been taken to the hospital for treatment.
