Driver and passenger injured as car is swallowed up by sinkhole

A sinkhole suddenly opened and swallowed an SUV in South Korea’s capital on Thursday, injuring the two occupants, emergency workers said.

Photos from the scene showed a white sport utility vehicle engulfed in the 8ft deep hole that appeared on a street in the central part of Seoul.

Emergency workers rescued the vehicle’s 82-year-old male driver and a 76-year-old female passenger.

No one else was hurt in the incident, which occurred at about 11.20am, according to Seoul’s Seodaemun district fire station.

The condition of the injured victims was not immediately known.

Traffic in the Seondaemun area continued to be restricted as of Thursday evening as workers and officials repaired the damaged road and investigated the cause of the sinkhole.

South Korea’s ministry of land, infrastructure and transport told legislators last year that at least 879 sinkholes were reported in the country from 2019 to June 2023.

Nearly half of those sinkholes were caused by damaged sewer pipes, the ministry said at the time.

Last week, a 48-year-old tourist from India disappeared in Malaysia’s capital when a pavement collapsed beneath her and caused her to fall into a 26ft deep sinkhole. Officials said that she may have been swept away by an underground water current.