Construction workers in Montreal, Canada, were shocked when they showed up to work on a damaged sewer pipe and ended up having a backhoe get swallowed by a massive sinkhole opening up on a major street, according to the Huffington Post.
"All of a sudden we saw from far that the whole street just caved in, and we could see the top of the tractor," eyewitness Christine Komorowski told CTV. "It was unbelievable."
Luckily the street had been closed in order to perform the repairs on the sewer line so the backhoe was the only vehicle to fall into the hole. The operator of the heavy construction vehicle was able to walk away without any major injuries, according to CTV.
The sewer leak is thought to be the cause of the sinkhole. Rahman Esmaela, the owner of nearby Sharks Bar, had reported that water had been leaking into his apartment to the city but felt as if they were ignoring his complaint, according to CTV.
"Since a week or ten days ago, water has been leaking all over the pool hall and the basement in the parking lot," Esmaela said. "We contacted the city many times, through the building and through our insurance, but the city ignored us, saying, we have no collection of any water coming from this and they didn't bother coming and checking it."
The incident is the latest in a series of sinkholes that have occurred in Montreal over the last couple of months. Richard Deschamps, a member of Montreal's executive committee responsible for infrastructure, told CBC that the sinkholes are a result of ignoring funding of infrastructure for the last 40 years.
A similar sinkhole occurred only one block away in June of 2012. The cause of the sinkhole will not be known for certain until an investigation is conducted but a spokeswoman for the Ville-Marie borough, Emilie Miskdjian, told CBC that it was most likely caused by a sewage leak.
"We think that the water leak was because of the sewer pipe...it's a broken sewer pipe," Miskdjian said. "That's what we think, but we will have to do an inspection to determine the cause."
