In Seoul, South Korea, a sinkhole unexpectedly appeared and swallowed a SUV on Thursday, leading to injuries for the two individuals inside, according to emergency personnel. Images from the location depicted a white SUV submerged in the 2½-meter-deep hole that emerged on a street in central Seoul. The 82-year-old male driver and 76-year-old female passenger inside the vehicle were rescued by emergency workers. Luckily, no one else was harmed during the incident, which occurred around 11:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) as reported by Seoul’s Seodaemun district fire station. The extent of the injuries sustained by the victims was not immediately disclosed. Traffic in the Seondaemun area remained limited into Thursday evening as authorities worked on repairing the road damage and determining the cause of the sinkhole.
According to the South Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s data provided to lawmakers in the past year, a total of 879 sinkholes were documented in the country between 2019 and June 2023. The ministry highlighted that nearly half of these sinkholes were triggered by deteriorated sewer pipes. Similarly, in the Malaysian capital last week, a 48-year-old Indian tourist went missing after the ground collapsed beneath her, causing an eight-meter-deep sinkhole to form. Authorities indicated that she might have been carried away by an underground water flow.
