China: Five people killed by sinkhole

FIVE people were killed after a 10-metre wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boom town neighbouring Hong Kong.

Rescue teams recover one of the victims of a sinkhole which opened up in a factory complex in Shenzhen. Picture: Getty

The sinkhole formed next to the Huamao Industrial Park on Monday evening, at a time when many workers would have been changing shifts, according to the website of Beijing-based newspaper the Guangming Daily.

The state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper said that rescuers saved one man at the site.

Reports said it was unclear how many people had fallen into the hole, understood to measure about 33 feet in width.

The search to find other
people who could have fallen into the hole was last night continuing.

A spokesman for the Shenzhen Longgang district government said five people had died and that an investigation into what caused the hole to form had been launched.

Sinkholes in China are often blamed on construction works and the country’s rapid pace of development.

Surveillance cameras in March captured images of a security guard being swallowed by a sinkhole, also in Shenzhen.