[imagesource: 618 Drone Service via Storyful]

A 30-metre-wide sinkhole opened beneath a soccer field in Illinois on Wednesday, leaving a deep, gaping hole in its wake.

Surveillance footage from the City of Alton shows the moment the sinkhole opens and swallows a light pole on the field in a cloud of dust.

The hole at Gordon Moore Park in the city of Alton, just north of St. Louis, Missouri, opened up at around nine in the morning, is about 30 metres wide and 9 metres deep, Alton Parks and Recreation Director Michael Haynes told NBC News.

Haynes said the sinkhole emerged because of “a mine collapse deep underground,” adding, “New Frontier Materials is responsible.”

Fortunately, no one was on the field at the time, and no one was hurt, he said.

“It looks like something out of a movie, right? It looks like a bomb went off,” Haynes told NBC affiliate KSDK of St. Louis.

Wild.

The stunning giant sinkhole that formed in the middle of a soccer field in a park in Alton, Illinois on June 26.pic.twitter.com/nq7dZBZsCO

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 28, 2024

The impacted area has been secured and will remain off-limits for the foreseeable future while inspectors and experts examine the mine and conduct repairs, according to a spokesperson for New Frontier Materials, which owns an underground mine.

Gordon Moore Park is temporarily closed “while the sinkhole investigation is being completed,” Alton Parks and Recreation said on social media.

Sinkholes occur naturally when groundwater circulates underground and dissolves the rock beneath the surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. While they are fairly common in Florida, as the state largely has limestone under the land’s surface, this one was a direct result of mining.

[source:nbcnews]