Five killed as huge sinkhole engulfs workers in Shenzhen

Five people were killed when a 10-metre-wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate and swallowed factory workers in Shenzhen, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The Shenzhen Longgang district government said on its verified page on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, five people had died and added that it was investigating the incident.

The sinkhole formed just outside the Huamao Industrial Park in Shenzhen on Monday evening, at a time when many factory workers would have been changing shifts, according to the website of Beijing-based newspaper the .

The state-run newspaper said that rescuers saved one man.

Reports said it was unclear how many people had fallen into the hole in total, but the search was continuing on Tuesday.

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