2ft deep but don't call it a pothole

A HOLE deep enough to "lose a dog in" has appeared in a Scottish street - but it's not a pothole, according to the council.

Aberdeen City Council says the hole, which appeared at the junction of Cuparstone Row and Ashvale Place, should be treated as a burst water main.

People living in the area have been left mystified since the hole cropped up four months after the worst December weather in Scotland in 40 years.

Patrycja Banach, 28, said the hole, which has been surrounded by traffic cones, was "absolutely ridiculous".

Stepping into the hole, which comes up to above her knees, she said: "Somebody could really get hurt."

Roddy Christie-Henry said the 2ft-deep hole must have opened up over the weekend.

An Aberdeen City Council spokesman said the crater was "not a pothole" and added that work was under way to establish how to repair it.

He said: "It was probably caused by a burst water main."

The hole appeared less than a month after a German minister compared some of Aberdeen's crumbling roads to a "training ground for tanks".

The Rev Markus Auffermann said the crater-filled roads reminded him of East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.