Thunder road: Huge sinkhole swallows car as rain lashes London

Resident of a street in Greenwich woke up this morning to the sight of a people carrier disappearing into a sinkhole. The car in Woodland Terrace would have reportedly disappeared completely if it was not resting on a pipe running under the road. Cleo O'Kane, 25, who lives nearby, said police had told her some residents might have to be evacuated. She said: “It must have been around 4am. I woke up and then just went back to sleep - my window was open - then woke up at six this morning, came outside and there was a car in a hole. I’ve been here for eight years and have never seen anything like this happen.”

I thought it was thunder - I heard a loud bang, but it was raining so much I thought it was thunder.

Cleo O'Kane, who lives nearby

She added: “Police said they don’t know what’s going on. They said the car is stuck on a gas pipe or a water pipe. They might have to evacuate all the houses.” Greenwich Police posted a picture of the people carrier on Twitter. They said the car was parked and no one was injured. A spokesman said: “Officers are on the scene and there is a cordon in place. The local authority has been called and there are other agencies on scene." A Royal Borough of Greenwich spokesman said: "We are urgently investigating the matter and will update residents the moment we have more information.”

sinkhole