BANGKOK: A portion of a busy road in Thailand's capital caved, leaving a hole dozens of metres deep that forced people to evacuate and drew a visit from the prime minister. Just outside a local police station and Vajira Hospital in a residential district of Bangkok, a roughly 50-metre (160-foot) hole pulled down power lines and exposed a burst pipe gushing water, journalists saw.
Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster prevention department, said at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to heavy rain and a leaky pipe that eroded earth under the road. "The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse," he said, adding that there were no known casualties. The tunnel is part of an underground service being built by the state-run Mass Rapid Transit Authority, which said it would investigate the cause of the cave-in.
Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited the site, telling reporters he was "concerned" and had ordered people at risk to be moved out of the area. Anutin also said he expected repairs to the collapsed subway tunnel to take about a year, local media reported. — AFP
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