Rescuers end 2-week search for trapped driver inside sinkhole near Tokyo
Firefighters said they ended Sunday their search inside a sinkhole near Tokyo for a man whose truck was swallowed by it nearly two weeks ago, with attention set to switch to an underground sewage pipe, Kyodo reported.
Rescuers were unable to find a trace of the 74-year-old driver remaining in the sinkhole, which appeared at an intersection in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on Jan. 28.
On Sunday morning, firefighters deployed heavy machinery using a ramp leading into the sinkhole and started work to remove mud and rubble, but they were forced to suspend work due to fears of a further collapse, they said.
The prefectural government has said the man could be somewhere in the sewage pipe after what appears to be a truck's cabin was found in the pipe some 100 to 200 meters away from the sinkhole on Wednesday.
The sinkhole has widened continuously since it first appeared. It merged with another hole that formed nearby and now measure around 40 meters wide and up to 15 meters deep.
On the night of January 4, 2024, a bus carrying three mine rescuers fell through ground into a stope of a non-operational mine in the territory of JSC Maikainzoloto in Kazakhstan's Pavlodar region. Bodies of two people were found almost immediately. The bodies of other rescuers were found and retrieved seven months later, in July.