QJust after midnight, the Earth suddenly opens up in a residential area of Rome: in the southeast of the Italian capital, a huge hole in the ground has torn up a street and swallowed two parked cars.
The hole, about 10 meters deep and about 10 meters in diameter, opened early Thursday morning around 1 a.m., Italian media reported, citing local police in Rome. Photos and videos of the gaping crater went viral on social media.
There were initially no reports of injuries. According to the preliminary data of the rescue service, there were no people on the street at the time of the incident. Local police and firefighters were on the scene. Police closed the street that night and secured the affected area in the Quadraro district. As you can see from the photos, there were other cars right next to the hole and they had to be removed.
Such sinkholes open again and again in big Italian cities. In late February, a sinkhole in Naples, southern Italy, swallowed several cars in a busy neighborhood.
The underground does not rest in Rome either. It is partially hollow in many places. This is due, among other things, to the age of the Italian capital, which was dug and built underground for many years. But the occasional heavy rain also ensures that the ground is literally washed away.