Super-impressive images of a road collapsing in Bangkok, residents forced to evacuate

A gigantic hole formed after a busy road collapsed in Bangkok on Wednesday, causing no casualties but evacuating the surrounding area. The 50-metre-deep hole in Samsen Street, near a police station and Vajira Hospital, ruptured a pipe and dragged power lines into the mud and debris, AFP journalists observed. Dozens of police and municipal officials cordoned off the site, in a residential area in the north of the Thai capital. A video posted on social networks and verified by AFP shows several people fleeing a construction site on Samsen Street as the road cracked and collapsed.

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster prevention department, told AFP on site that the collapse was probably linked to the recent heavy rains and a leaking pipe. “There was a leak in the pipe -- water from the pipe eroded (the earth) under the road, causing the accident,” he said, adding that there were no casualties at present. “The water carried away soil which fell on a metro station under construction, causing the collapse,” added the same source, who added that the police station had been evacuated. The tunnel is part of an underground service being built by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority, the state-owned company in charge of the subway, which said it would investigate the cause of the collapse.