As of: March 29, 2024, 2:38 p.m
By: Michelle Brey
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In Italy the ground opened up. Two cars fell many meters into the depths. © Polizia Roma Capitale/dpa
A deep crater appears out of nowhere in the middle of Rome. Two cars crash into the ground in the city. Helpers arrive.
Rome – Ten meters deep: A huge hole in the ground gapes in the middle of a residential area in Rome (Italy). On Thursday evening (March 28th), shortly after midnight, the earth opened up with a diameter of almost ten meters. The crater swallowed two parked cars.
In the middle of the night: a hole in the ground goes ten meters deep - two cars fall into it
The sinkhole opened around 1 a.m., according to media reports citing Rome local police. Based only on the timing, the incident can probably be called a blessing in disguise. According to initial findings, there were no people on the streets at the moment the earth opened. There were initially no reports of injuries or deaths.
The local police and fire brigade were present at the scene. The police closed the road in the dark and secured the affected area in the Quadraro district. Pictures show the crater into which the two vehicles fell. Other cars were right next to the collapse site and had to be removed.
Sinkholes in Italy are not uncommon - but why?
Craters like the one in Rome are not very unusual in major Italian cities. Just at the end of February, a hole in Naples swallowed several moving cars in a busy neighborhood. In Rome, the underground is partially hollow in many places. The background to this is, among other things, the age of the capital of Italy. For years, people built and dug underground. But the weather also plays a major role. Occasional heavy rainfall ensures that the ground is literally washed out.
The event is reminiscent, among other things, of the Trudering crater from 1994, into which a bus fell eight meters deep. Unlike in Rome, there were deaths in Germany back then.
An accident in Iceland also caused a stir at the beginning of 2024. A construction worker disappeared without a trace into a volcanic fissure.
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