Man swallowed up by 30ft sinkhole in Florida

It really was the stuff of nightmares. Just before midnight on Thursday, a large sinkhole appeared underneath 36-year-old Jeffrey Bush’s bedroom in his home near Tampa, Florida, trapping him under rubble in a void that this morning was said to be 30ft wide, 20ft deep and expanding.

“I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house,” Mr Bush’s brother, Jeremy, told local news station WFTS. “I heard my brother screaming and I ran back there and tried going inside his room... all I seen was this big hole, a real big hole, and all I saw was his mattress.”

Sinkholes are common in central Florida, though they rarely swallow people. When police arrived, they pulled Jeremy Bush from the still-growing hole, but found no sign of his brother.

The neighbouring houses were evacuated as a precaution.