A sinkhole in the middle of a busy street in Montreal has swallowed a backhoe on Monday.
The giant sinkhole, which measures eight meters long and five meters across, opened up at about 9 a.m. ET this morning at the intersection of Guy and St. Gatherine streets, according to Yahoo! News.
The backhoe will have to wait until tomorrow to be removed. The removal of the machinery is complicated as a gas line is located nearby and there is a risk of the hole getting bigger.
The driver of the backhoe was not injured and was able to climb out after it collapsed.
The sinkhole is believed to have been caused by a leaking sewer pipe across the street. The ground opened up after workers started working on repairing the leak near the site, according to borough spokeswoman Emilie Miskdjian.
Shop owner Rahman Esmaili told news reporters that he had advised the city about the leak more than a week ago. "Eight days ago we saw some water coming from the streets and we approached the city and there was no reaction from the city," he told the Canadian Press.
Emaili told the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "It was pouring in the wall and coming down in the whole street and it smells and all this nonsense — you cannot imagine."
This weekend, a mysterious sinkhole in West Kansas measuring at more than 200 feet across and 90 feet deep, swallowed a pasture. No injuries have been reported.
A local police officer told KWCH-TV: "Man had nothing to do with this. This is a God thing. There's no oil well around here, there are no irrigation wells anywhere near. This is something that just happened."
