A Japanese death row inmate who spent 46 years on death row has won the equivalent of 1.2 million euros in damages from the Japanese state, a Japanese court spokesman said on Tuesday.

A large section of roadway collapsed in the southeast of the South Korean capital Seoul, causing a motorcyclist to fall to his death, firefighters said on Tuesday.

In images captured by a camera, transmitted to AFP by a member of parliament, the hole can be seen suddenly opening up in the middle of a busy street at around 6.30 pm on Monday, a rush hour.

The first car was on the verge of falling, before miraculously bouncing back and avoiding the fall. The following motorcyclist was swallowed up. On Tuesday, “the missing person, in his thirties, was found in a state of cardiac arrest, approximately 50 metres from the center of the pit”, Kim Chang-seop, an official with the Gangdong district fire department, told the press.

“He was buried under approximately 90 centimetres (of debris) and was discovered (...) still wearing his helmet and motorcycle boots,” he continued, explaining that the search had lasted 17 hours.

The rescuers “dug with their hands”, assisted by a rescue dog, according to the fire department. The gaping hole is now around 20 metres wide and deep, according to the same source.

Work on an extension to a subway line was underway in the area, and a spokesman for Seoul City Hall told AFP that this construction site could have been one of the “multiple factors” that led to the accident.

“We will conduct a full investigation once the earth and debris have been removed,” the spokesman assured.   Accidents linked to such road collapses are rare in South Korea, with an average of less than 200 cases per year, according to government data.