Huge Car Guzzling Sinkhole Wreaks Havoc in a Parking Lot in Jerusalem

Sinkholes are horrifying cavities that form in the ground and just the thought of falling victim to one makes your skin crawl. They can reach sizes of thousands of feet and manifest through the surface ground suddenly collapsing and swallowing everything on that perimeter.

Among other causes, these holes can also be triggered by human activities such as lowering the groundwater levels.

The hospital parking lot of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem recently experimented the phenomenon and bystanders captured it all on video.

Dozens of vehicles were parked in the vicinity and several of them were simply swallowed by the hole, as can be seen in the attached YouTube video.

Several rescue crews arrived at the scene and fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries according to authorities. Well, except for the swallowed vehicles and their financially affected owners… The traffic in the area has been closed for now, as officials fear another collapse is possible.

The sinkhole appeared Monday afternoon, close to a highway where tunnels are being dug. Investigations are currently carried out to determine whether the road work has influenced the collapse in any way.

The weather at that time in Jerusalem was warm, so the soil was dry, which makes this occurrence even more unusual.

A similar event took place last year in Xining, Qinghai province in China, but unfortunately, the damages were bigger in that case, with several deaths and injuries being reported. An entire bus with passengers in it was swallowed.

The sinkhole in China had over 32 feet (9 meters) in diameter. Sinkholes in China are thought to be opening up due to poor construction work, which is happening at a rapid pace, in an exhausting attempt to keep up with demand for more property development.