Watch: Massive Sinkhole Swallows 4 Pedestrians In China

A pavement collapsed in Dazhou city, Sichuan province in central China on Sunday afternoon, giving way to a massive sink hole that swallowed four pedestrians.

People’s Daily China confirmed one of the four casualties was confirmed dead while the extent of injuries of the rest of them was not immediately known. The Chinese news outlet also posted a video which showed the exact moment the sinkhole opened up and caused the four people to fall in it.

The sinkhole was formed when a large portion of a tiled pavement outside a local hospital gave way. Unsuspecting people who were walking on the busy commercial part of Dazhou were swallowed by the sinkhole in a matter of seconds. All of them were rescued by emergency staff and taken to a hospital, South China Morning Post reported.

The area was cordoned off by the police and traffic was diverted away from the area as investigations into the cause of the sinkhole continued. The length of the sinkhole was not immediately known.

As emergency management team worked to recover the victims, the sinkhole grew bigger, putting the rescuers’ lives in danger. A second collapse around the same spot where the sinkhole had opened up, causing more concrete materials to fall into the pit, set rescuers to scramble on to the other side in order to avoid potential injuries.

Following the second collapse around the sinkhole, a young boy fell into the crater-like pit but escaped with just mild injuries as he was rescued by passersby.

This is not the first time a sinkhole was reported in Central China. After a spell of heavy rainfall earlier this year, a 164-feet long sinkhole opened up in Guangan, Sichuan. Similar collapses in northwestern Gansu and northeastern Heilongjiang provinces in 2012 caused the death of a woman from Beijing and left several others injured.

The United States is also not unfamiliar to sinkholes popping up around the country. One of the most recent was in June at Downey Street, Los Angeles, where a gaping hole appeared after a woman rammed her SUV into a fire hydrant and a power pole.

“Edison crew is still out here tonight working to repair a gigantic sinkhole on Rives Avenue after a woman crashed her SUV into a power pole and fire hydrant. Nearly 500 customers affected. I’ll have an update on when power and water will be fully restored shortly,” FOX LA reporter Leah Uko had tweeted.

The SUV was completely swallowed by the sinkhole although the condition of the woman was not revealed.

“I came out here like 3 a.m. [6 a.m. EDT] and you could see the car sinking. It was even getting [worser.] You could only see one window the top window,” a resident said at the time.