Five households in the immediate vicinity of a massive, ever-widening sinkhole in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, were urged to evacuate Sunday, with efforts to rescue a man stuck inside reportedly halted.
A 74-year-old truck driver was swallowed Tuesday by the cavity which has since expanded to 40 meters across -- almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool.
The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewerage pipes, according to local authorities.
Requests were issued Sunday for five households near the sinkhole to take shelter, a local government official told AFP.
This is in addition to other residents within a 50-meter radius of the cavity who are also being encouraged to evacuate, he said.
On Saturday, Japanese rescuers completed building a 30-meter slope to send heavy equipment and reach the truck driver.
But a good amount of sewage water was discovered underneath the slope, which, combined with rain, led to the rescue mission being suspended Sunday, public broadcaster NHK said.
With the walls of the hole -- around 15 meters deep, according to NHK -- eroding, rescue workers are unable to stay inside it for long.
The hole was initially around five meters in diameter but combined with a larger cavity that opened during the rescue operation on Tuesday night.
Around 1.2 million people living nearby have so far been asked to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from hindering the operation.
© 2025 AFP
25 Comments
Login to comment
Sanjinosebleed
Very sad for the truck driver and his family.
The Avenger
Very tragic.
You can watch the truck driver getting swallowed into the sinkhole here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ZaYSfSodg
Viewer Discretion is Advised:
The_Beagle
So the old fella didn't make it. So sad.
Fighto!
Tragic news. Rest in Peace to the poor truck driver. At 74, still working while no doubt some of his peers were enjoying retirement.
Wishing the best for the workers at the site.
DanteKH
Can someone explain please what happened to the truck driver, why cannot be found or why wasn't he in the truck cabin? Even if he tried to free himself, was he swaled by the sewage system there?
Are there any hypothesis on what might happened to him?
wallace
The truck driver is deceased but it must be stressful to his family that his body has not been recovered.
dobre vam zajebava
sad story.
to be at wrong place at wrong time.
WoodyLee
""The hole was initially around five meters in diameter but combined with a larger cavity that opened during the rescue operation on Tuesday night.""
This soul could have been rescued and saved within the first 12 to 18 hours if this entire medium or small sized truck was hooked and pulled or even air lifted and before the cabin got filled with mud and buried.
Cables could have been attached to the truck from as far and safe as possible to stop it from sinking then rescuers could have been lowered from the air or by a hoist if possible to free the man.
Bad so called rescue, if not the worst.
WoodyLee
RIP SIR, someone let you down.
Ken
It is extremely dangerous for the personnel trying to proceed with the rescue operation as equipment that is too heavy would also be at risk of sinking as the ground in the surrounding area is just as fragile as glass basically
WoodyLee
What's the first thing rescuers do when something is sinking regardless , they get cables or ropes attached to the object.
I rest my case.
Garthgoyle
Dang, poor guy. Such a sad way to go. My condolences to his family.
tamanegi
My deepest condolences to the gentleman's family and coworkers.
Still locals whining this morning on breakfast TV that they have difficulty getting their clothes washed.
Cephus
Really sad ending!!
grc
It’s so nice to see people here overflowing with genuine compassion
Desert Tortoise
The cab with the driver inside broke off the truck frame as it was being lifted out. It may have been that the drivers cab was already partially buried by dirt when the rest of the truck was lifted out. The hole is unstable and dirt is sliding in there all the time.
Desert Tortoise
The workers have to be lowered into the hole by cherry pickers or cranes. Walking in causes more ground to slide in and bury the truck and is unsafe for the rescue workers, two of whom were already injured trying to get to the truck cab where the driver is. The possibility of the rescuers being buried was very real.
kohakuebisu
What a nightmare. Good luck to the rescue teams, who won't be enjoying this.
Perhaps we should be grateful that the infrastructure that underpins our lives fails so rarely.
Zaphod
WoodyLee
To get cables or ropes attached, rescuers would need to go down there and work there, while the hole is extremely unstable. Are you suggesting that more people should have been sacrificed?
Newgirlintown
Ironic that they’re also being told not to evacuate their bowels due to the water problem.
Cfields
”The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewerage pipes”
How much more of this infrastructure is going to fail into another sinkhole endangering more people?
Trenchless technology can extend the service life of these underground facilities. Public Works should have inspection records to identify the conditions.
My condolences to the family of the man left behind.
SwissToni
It’s likely the sewage pipe or other water source has been leaking for some time and created the sinkhole. It’s rare but not unknown, even with regular cctv inspection of the pipes. There’s little that can be achieved until the unstable ground is cleared. It maybe that the only safe way to stabilise the ground is to divert the flow of water to new pipe work and fill the hole with concrete and grout. It’s a big hole and might even need piling. It’s tragic for the truck driver but the hole has got so big the authorities must be looking to secure the surrounding properties now.
iron man
Trenchless technology can extend the service life of these underground facilities. Public Works should have inspection records to identify the conditions.
So correct, there are also rehab lining technologies for sewers, storm drains, water mains. They take years of surveying, drawing scrutiny, and months of suspensions whilst the works are performed. But both of our comments are retrospective in this case. oops, forgot to mention. application of such solutions cost more than the original construction (even when inflation adjusted). Pls do not bother me. set up a meeting with your local service providers, they knows.
iron man
S.T. thumbs up. jpn has vibration less piling, hyd push /pull. good stuff for soft ground, out for me.
Desert Tortoise
Where are you getting your data from? We did a study of this matter for our city and trenchless repair was the only solution our city could even begin to afford. And this ignores the indirect costs to the community and local businesses from trenching streets, blocking driveways and disrupting traffic that inherent in old fashioned methods of sewer repair.