Massive Sinkhole Swallows 4 Cars in Jiangxi

A massive sinkhole swallowed up four cars in Jiangxi last week. Luckily, no one was injured, but the incident held up traffic for over an hour.

The sinkhole was around two meters deep, five meters wide and more than 10 meters long. Firefighters and policemen arrived at the scene to lift the cars out of the hole.

Sinkholes seem to be pretty common in China. Just last month, a brave cop in Hangzhou stopped a sinkhole from swallowing up a bunch of vehicles on a busy intersection with only seconds to spare.

The abundance of sinkholes can be attributed to the relatively slow pace of China's infrastructure development, which seems to be unable to catch up with China’s rapid economic expansion. In an interview with Military Affairs Eve, a Tsinghua University professor said that soil erosion underneath roads is the main culprit for sinkholes in cities throughout China. Aging pipelines, days of heavy rain and excessive groundwater also play a part.

[Images via Weibo]