Huge sinkhole in central Mexico threatens to swallow home

But they soon discovered the floor had dropped only metres from their home in a field in Santa Maria Zacatepec, a rural region of central Mexico.

TheEditor
TheEditor
02 June 2021 Wednesday 05:17
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Huge sinkhole in central Mexico threatens to swallow home

The giant sinkhole, that is enlarging by heaps of metres each day, reached about 30 metres wide by Sunday.

It climbed to 60 metres on Monday and around 80 metres on Tuesday, authorities said, coming dangerously close to the house of the Sanchez family, that fear they'll be left homeless.

"We've got nothing. We're not from here. We have no relatives. We're alone," Heriberto Sanchez, initially in the south-west state of Veracruz, informed the press.

Researchers and governments were contemplating hypotheses such as a geological fault or variations in the soil's water content as the probable causes.

Since the sinkhole has grown, large chunks of earth have always broken away from the rim, scaring off onlookers approaching a security cordon set up by the police.

In a video posted on social networking, two men were spotted approaching the hole soon before it expanded unexpectedly, forcing them to run to safety.

"It'll grow until nature determines, when the water stops exerting pressure," Puebla state governor Miguel Barbosa stated.

"The important thing is public safety."