November 2nd, 2010
10:24 AM ET

Giant sinkhole opens in Germany

Repairs are to begin Wednesday on a 65-foot-deep (20 meters) sinkhole that opened in the eastern German town of Schmalkalden on Monday, local authorities said.

The sinkhole, which measured more than 130 feet (40 meters) across, swallowed a car and forced the evacuation of 25 people in nine houses, the regional newspaper Thueringer-Allgemeine reported.

Officials told the paper more than 1,000 truckloads of gravel would be needed to fill the hole.

Residents reported hearing a loud roar as the earth gave way early Monday morning, according to the newspaper report. The cause of the sinkhole had not been determined.

JĂĽrgen Reinholz, environment and agriculture minister for the state of Thuringia, said natural causes were suspected, according to Spiegel Online International.

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Filed under: Germany • World
soundoff (285 Responses)
  1. Sweetenedtea

    The cause of the sinkhole has not been determined, but you better believe they'll get to the bottom of it soon.

    November 2, 2010 at 12:05 pm | Report abuse |
  2. korwynias

    Bush and Chaney are still terrorizing the world it looks like

    November 2, 2010 at 12:07 pm | Report abuse |
  3. korwynias

    Oh Bush finaly found the WMD....no wait, thats just a yellow car

    November 2, 2010 at 12:12 pm | Report abuse |
    • jack

      He was looking for yellow cake and found a yellow car.

      November 2, 2010 at 12:18 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Adelasa

    All the religious people are going to be like 'Meh, no! This is an act of God...he was playing mega darts in heaven and one of them flew to earth by accident' or 'No this is God opening his mouth!' ...just wait they will all chime in with some insanity

    November 2, 2010 at 12:12 pm | Report abuse |
  5. CartoonVision

    I'll just open the door, get my paper and ahhhhhhhh..... (trailing off voice, followed by Wiley Coyote poof of dust)

    November 2, 2010 at 12:14 pm | Report abuse |
  6. korwynias

    Obama haters are so funny with what they say lol

    November 2, 2010 at 12:15 pm | Report abuse |
  7. ejukateme

    how do you begin to repair a sinkhole!? Just start piling in dirt?

    November 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm | Report abuse |
  8. jack

    I wonder what the other building facing it is. It looks like a big garage. I wonder if it's going down or if any cars were flushed down there.

    November 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm | Report abuse |
  9. ejukateme

    How do you begin to repair a sinkhole? Just start filling it in with dirt?

    November 2, 2010 at 12:17 pm | Report abuse |
  10. korwynias

    Look how it didnt even budge the power lines. Why cant ours be that good

    November 2, 2010 at 12:18 pm | Report abuse |
  11. Patrick04

    They need to think out of the box on this one... I think the sink hole could become a huge tourist attraction for Central Germany (because really how many 1000 year old castles can you visit on one vacation??) but with a sink hole in your back yard you could charge 2 or 3 Euros a head and make a fortune!!! Just saying......

    November 2, 2010 at 12:20 pm | Report abuse |
  12. observer

    This is what happens when you tell your kids to dig a hole for a rose bush and don't supervise them.

    November 2, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Report abuse |
  13. korwynias

    World is doomed!!! Hitler escaped hell!!!

    November 2, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Report abuse |
  14. OG

    I have noticed many of these perfectly shaped sinkholes showing up around the globe. I believe they are either entry or exit points for alien spacecraft...

    November 2, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Report abuse |
  15. The Danish Dynamo

    blame Android – it's a unreliable platform – the yellow car is Windows Phone 7

    November 2, 2010 at 12:21 pm | Report abuse |
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