Italy
Huge sinkhole in Rome swallows two cars
Cars are lying in a huge hole in the ground that has opened up in Rome
© Polizia Roma Capitale / DPA
A ten-meter-wide crater opens up in the streets of Rome. Two cars fall into it. A blessing in disguise: no one gets hurt.
Shortly after midnight, the earth suddenly opens up in a residential area in Rome: a huge hole in the ground has torn up the street in the southeast of the Italian capital and swallowed up two parked cars. The hole, which is around ten meters deep and has a diameter of around ten meters, opened up early on Thursday morning around 1 a.m., as Italian media reported, citing the Roman local police. Photos and videos of the gaping crater spread on social media.
Holes in the ground are not uncommon in Italy’s major cities
There were initially no reports of injuries. According to the emergency services’ initial findings, there were no people on the street during the incident. Local police and firefighters were on site. The police closed the street that night and secured the affected area in the Quadraro district. As you can see from the photos, there were more Cars were right next to the hole and had to be removed.
Such sinkholes open up again and again in major Italian cities. At the end of February, a hole in Naples, southern Italy, swallowed several cars in a busy neighborhood. In Rome, too, the underground is not resting. In many places it is partially hollow. The reason for this is, among other things, the age of Italy’s capital, where digging and building underground took place over many years. But occasional heavy rain also ensures that the ground is literally washed out.