Fears grow for Japan truck driver swallowed by sinkhole as rescue enters 4th day

Fears are increasing for the wellness and information of a truck driver who has present spent astir 4 days trapped successful a sinkhole successful Japan, aft the roadworthy opened up and swallowed the motortruck helium was driving.

The 74-year-old driver, who has not been identified, archetypal became trapped successful the sinkhole erstwhile it opened up successful a engaged intersection successful Yashimo City, conscionable extracurricular Tokyo, connected Tuesday morning.

He was conscious and communicating with rescue workers earlier but hasn’t responded since Tuesday afternoon, according to Yashio occurrence section authoritative Yoshifumi Hashiguchi.

Rescue crews person been moving astir the timepiece to the scope the man. They were capable to retrieve the motortruck furniture from the sinkhole, but the compartment of the motortruck remains buried nether debris and soil.

When it archetypal formed, the sinkhole was astir the size of a swimming excavation and astir 33 feet wide and 20 feet deep. But unstable ground, leaking h2o pipes and escaped debris person caused the spread to turn astir 4 times successful width, section officials say.

“The wrong is gouging and it’s getting bigger each day,” an authoritative from Saitama Prefecture’s Sewerage Works Division told CNN.

It’s believed the spread was caused by the rupture of an underground sewage pipe. Wastewater from the damaged tube has flooded the hole, causing a 2nd sinkhole to look connected Thursday.

According to The Guardian, crews are present switching tactics, and person begun gathering a 30-metre-long ramp that they anticipation volition let them to scope the man.

“We are readying to conception a slope from a safer spot truthful that we volition beryllium capable to nonstop down dense equipment,” section occurrence chief, Tetsuji Sato, told the outlet, calling the operation astir the sinkhole “extremely dangerous.”

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Meanwhile, the crushed has go truthful unstable successful the country that residents surviving successful astir 200 adjacent homes person been ordered to evacuate, and 1.2 cardinal radical successful the country person been asked to chopped backmost connected h2o consumption, to forestall much leaking sewage h2o from entering the hole.

According to section quality outlet Kyodo, erstwhile the ramp is complete, dense instrumentality volition beryllium driven into the spread to wide retired immoderate of the debris and rescue workers volition past beryllium capable to participate the sinkhole to proceed their search.

When the operator is taken out, experts volition participate the sinkhole and inspect the sewage system.

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has ordered a nationwide inspection of sewer systems. In 1 of the world’s astir disaster-prone countries, the sinkhole has raised worries astir aging infrastructure.

Most of Japan’s main nationalist infrastructure was built during the accelerated economical maturation of the 1960s and 1970s. The sewage tube successful Yashiro is astir 40 years old.

— With a record from The Associated Press