Ground collapsed near a busy highway in northwestern Moscow on Sunday, no one was injured, the Mayak radio reported citing a police spokesman.
The sinkhole that formed on Marshala Zhukova Avenue as a result of the cave-in was 15m (49ft) deep and 3m (10ft) wide.
“Preliminarily, asphalt collapsed into a void washed out by water near the traffic area. Rescuers and traffic police officers cordoned off the dangerous spot,” the spokesman said.
However, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily played down the scale of the incident, saying the hole was just about 0.5m (1.6ft) wide.
Moscow has seen such incidents before, one of the biggest of them occurring in 2006, when a 300-square-meter (3,230ft) crater emerged as Leningradskoye Highway linking Moscow with St. Petersburg partially sunk, burying a truck and an electricity power post in the capital’s northwest.
MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)