Guatemalan woman finds 12-metre-deep sinkhole under her bed
When neighbours heard the loud boom overnight they thought a cooking gas canister had detonated. Instead they found a deep sinkhole the size of a large pot inside a home in a neighbourhood just north of Guatemala City.
The sinkhole that appeared late Monday was 12.2 metres deep and 80 centimetres in diameter, an AFP journalist who visited the site reported.
Mind the gap ... a man inspects a sinkhole inside a house in Guatemala City. Photo: AFP
The hole is tiny compared to giant sinkhole that formed nearby in 2007 that was 100 metres deep and swallowed several homes and a truck, killing three people. Area residents were forced to evacuate for days.
A 2010 sinkhole also in the same area, measuring 18 metres wide and about 30 metres deep, swallowed a three-story building and a nearby house when it suddenly formed.
"When we heard the loud boom we thought a gas canister from a neighbouring home had exploded, or there had been a crash on the street," said Inocenta Hernandez, a 65 year-old widow.
"We rushed out to look and saw nothing. A gentleman told me that the noise came from my house, and we searched until we found it under my bed," said Hernandez.
"Thank God there are only material damages, because my grandchildren were running around the house, into that room and out to the patio," she said.
Police, members of the country's natural disaster office and water utility company officials came to visit the site.
Sinkholes, formed by the natural process of erosion, can be gradual but are often sudden.
Guatemala City, built on volcanic deposits, is especially prone to sinkholes, often blamed on a leaky sewer system or on heavy rain.
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Will UMNO be around in 2012? Let's see what other dirty deal Najib is planning.
Prediction has it that when Sultan of Kelantan becomes Agong, UMNO is already history.