Footage captured the chaos of the moment a sinkhole opened up in a Shropshire canal as people on board their boats were sleeping until they were woken up by load noises
This is the shocking moment a massive sinkhole swallowed a canal whole in a 4am horror collapse.
Stunning video footage, which has been viewed more than 131,000 times, was filmed amid the chaos showed a boat seen tipping over the sinkhole with wood shattering in Llangollen Canal in Whitchurch, in Shropshire. The clip, uploaded by Paul Smith-Storey, who has the Narrowboat Life Unlocked YouTube channel.
He was woken up by loud noises when the sinkhole opened up about 18 yards away. Bob Wood, 75, was asleep when his boat ended up getting sucked toward the sinkhole.
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“I was in the boat asleep and I thought I needed to go to the toilet so I got up and thought ‘wen are leaning a bit’.” He continued: “I opened the back door to see why we were tilting and realised it was not raining at all and it was the water running away under the boat.
“I jumped on the back and stepped off and that bit was going down at that second. The back went eight feet in the air and I landed on my front.”
Mr Wood said he went over the closest canal boat and that he started bashing the sides to wake up the people. MailOnline reported he added: “He got out really quickly and his boat went down as well. My boat went nose down and his went stern first.”
Two narrowboats were seen falling into the sinkhole and were left at the bottom of the canal with another looming over the edge. The canal bank ended up collapsing and resulted in a large amount of water rushing across the surrounding land.
Smith-Storey said in the video: “It is 20 past four in the morning, we have just heard a crash, it woke us both up.” The YouTuber said he spoke to one of the owners who ended up about 12 feet down the sinkhole.
Fortunately no one was injured in the incident. Liberal Democrat Councillor Sho Abdul said it was an “absolute miracle” that no one was injured.
He added: “I just want to thank the fire service, police and the River and Canal Trust for everything they have done this morning. They have been fantastic at securing the area and making sure nobody was hurt. We were so shocked to see it – it was like an explosive had gone off.”
“Firefighters have been working in challenging conditions with unstable ground and rapidly moving water, crews immediately established upstream and downstream safety sectors and began mitigating water flow using barge boards and water gate systems.,” a spokesperson for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said.
