Oct. 9 (UPI) — Authorities said Tuesday that four people have died from a 10-foot-wide sinkhole collapsing the ground beneath them in China.
The ground opened up Sunday afternoon in a district of Dazhou city, Sichuan province, of southwestern China, the South China Morning Post said.
Five people fell into the hole at around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to Yahoo7 News, as one young man was immediately grabbed up by passers-by and the four other people sank into the hole.
Rescuers located the first victim within 10 hours, but he died on the way to the hospital. The second victim was pulled out nine hours later, was also declared dead by paramedics.
CNN identified the other two victims pulled out of the rubble Tuesday as a father and his young son.
It is unclear what caused the sinkhole though they usually form when acidic rainwater dissolves soft rock beneath the soil, creating a void, CNN reported.
