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Huge sinkhole causes 380 people to be evacuated from Naples neighbourhood in Italy

Around 95 families had to be found emergency accommodation

Lamiat Sabin
Monday 23 February 2015 15:44 GMT
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A sinkhole in a residential area of Napoli, Italy
A sinkhole in a residential area of Napoli, Italy (EPA)

Naples residents woke up to a massive sinkhole yesterday morning that led to hundreds of people being evacuated from the area in the Italian city.

A woman who lived at number 131 heard “a huge thud” and looked out to see a car falling into the pit above a disused underground rail tunnel.

The hole will be filled with concrete once it has been inspected for any further potential damage.

Sinkholes usually occur when soluble bedrock such as limestone gets dissolved by water and drainage.

A sinkhole around 40ft wide in Kentucky, US, swallowed eight rare classic cars costing millions of dollars in total at a museum earlier this month.

Shortly before that in the UK, a 30ft-deep hole in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, took down a car and a family were told not to sleep in their nearby house in case of potential further damage.

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