The fears are growing by the health and safety of a truck driver who has now spent almost four days trapped in a sink in Japan, after the road opened and swallowed the truck he was driving.
The 74 -year -old driver, who has not been identified, was trapped for the first time in the sink when he opened at an intersection occupied in the city of Yashimo, on the outskirts of Tokyo, on Tuesday morning.
He was aware and communicated with rescue workers before, but has not responded since Tuesday afternoon, according to the Yashio Fire Department official, Yoshifumi hashiguchi.
Rescue teams have been working 24 hours to get to man. They were able to recover the bed of the sink truck, but the cabin of the truck remains buried under debris and earth.
The first to respond try to rescue the driver of a truck that fell into a sink on a street in Yashio, to the northeast of Tokyo, on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.
Kenichiro Kojima / Kyodo News via Ap
When it was formed for the first time, the sink was approximately the size of a pool and approximately 33 feet wide and 20 feet deep. But the unstable terrain, the leak of water pipes and the loose waste has caused the hole to grow approximately four times in width, local officials say.
“The interior is turning and is getting bigger every day“Said an official of the Division of Sewerage Works of the Prefecture of Saitama to CNN.
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It is believed that the hole was caused by the rupture of an underground wastewater pipe. The wastewater of the damaged pipe has flooded the hole, causing a second sink appearing on Thursday.
According to The Guardian, teams are now changing tactics and have begun to build a 30 -meter long ramp They expect to allow them to reach man.
“We are planning to build a slope from a safer place so that we can send heavy equipment,” said local fire chief Tetsuji Sato, calling outlet Operation around the “extremely dangerous” sink.
Firefighters work to rescue a truck driver after their vehicle was swallowed by a sink at a prefectural road intersection, in the city of Yashio, Prefecture of Saitama, on January 28, 2025.
Jiji Press / AFP through Getty Images
Meanwhile, the land has become so unstable in the area that residents living in approximately 200 nearby houses have received the order to evacuate, and have been asked to 1.2 million people in the area the hole.
According to the local media, Kyodo, once the ramp is complete, heavy equipment will be conducted in the hole to eliminate some of the debris and rescue workers can enter the sink to continue their search.
When the driver is removed, experts will enter the sink and inspect the wastewater system.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation has ordered a national inspection of sewerage systems. In one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, the sink has generated concerns about aging infrastructure.
Most of Japan's main public infrastructure was built during the rapid economic growth of the sixties and seventies. The wastewater pipe in Yashiro is about 40 years old.
– With an Associated Press file
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