TOKYO: Japanese rescuers have recovered the body of a truck driver who was swallowed by a huge sinkhole near Tokyo three months ago, an official said on Friday.
\nA road in the city of Yashio caved in during morning rush hour in late January while the 74-year-old man was driving his lorry on it.
\nThe sinkhole, which was caused by corroded sewerage pipes, was reportedly 16 meters (52 feet) deep in February.
\nThe search operation was hindered by unstable ground, which raised the risk of the chasm collapsing further and prevented rescuers from approaching the area where the driver was believed to be buried.
\nSince then the hole has grown to at least 40 meters across, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool.
\nA slope later allowed rescuers to send heavy equipment into the hole while 1.2 million residents were asked to temporarily cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from hindering the operation.
\nWalls were built to ensure safety, regional officials said.
\n\u201cWe discovered a man inside the truck cabin and confirmed his death, then passed the incident to police,\u201d a spokesman for the local fire department said Friday.
\nA police spokesman said investigations were under way, including officially confirming the body\u2019s identity.
\n\u201cUntil the very end of his life, my father, who had a strong heart, must have been hoping to come home alive \u2013 fighting fear and pain \u2013 which makes me feel a tightening in my heart,\u201d a family member of the unnamed driver said in a statement to Japanese media.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t believe or accept the fact that my father, who was loved by everyone, suddenly disappeared,\u201d the statement said.
\nThe number of sinkholes in Japan is rising, topping 10,000 in fiscal 2022. Many of these are sewerage-related in urban areas, a land ministry probe shows.
\nIn 2016 a giant sinkhole around 30 meters wide and 15 meters deep appeared on a busy street in Fukuoka city, triggered by nearby subway construction.
\nNo one was hurt and the street reopened a week after workers toiled around the clock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO: Japanese rescuers have recovered the body of a truck driver who was swallowed by a huge sinkhole near Tokyo three months ago, an official said on Friday. A road in the city of Yashio caved in during morning rush hour in late January while the 74-year-old man was driving his lorry on it. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80488,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80474\/revisions\/80488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}