A portion of a busy road in Thailand‘s capital collapsed dramatically on Wednesday, leaving a 160ft-deep sinkhole in the ground.

Terrifying footage showed the moment a road dramatically gave way in front of Vajira Hospital in central Bangkok, pulling down several electricity poles and leaving water pipes exposed.

Vehicles were seen attempting to reverse as the floor opened up while pedestrians ran away from the site.

Images of the aftermath of the incident showed how the hole was filled with water after pipes burst.

Dozens of police and city officials cordoned off the site, while a pickup truck teetered precariously on the edge of the hole.

No casualties were reported, but three vehicles sustained damage, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said.

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok’s disaster prevention department, told AFP at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to recent heavy rain and a leaky pipe.

‘There was a leak in the water pipe – water from the pipe eroded (earth) under the road so this incident happened,’ he said, adding that there were no known casualties.

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A portion of a busy road in Thailand ‘s capital collapsed dramatically on Wednesday, leaving a 160ft-deep sinkhole in the ground

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Terrifying footage showed the moment the ground dramatically gave way in front of Vajira Hospital in central Bangkok

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Vehicles were seen attempting to reverse as the floor opened up while pedestrians ran away from the site

‘The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse,’ Suriyachai added.

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.

Suriyachai said the local police station facing the collapsed road was evacuated.

Senior police officer Sayam Boonsom also said he had ordered the evacuation of nearby apartment blocks.

‘The location is at a station, and the soil was sucked into the site… it collapsed,’ Governor Sittipunt told AFP at the scene.

Vajira Hospital, a teaching facility for one of Thailand’s top medical universities, said in a Facebook post it was suspending outpatient services, adding that they would ‘resume as soon as possible’.

Noppadech Pitpeng, a 27-year-old hospital staffer who lives in a nearby building, said he was frightened by a rumbling sound on Wednesday morning that woke him up.

‘The sound was like an electricity pole collapsing and my whole flat shook,’ he said, while carrying clothes in a large bucket out of his building.

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A vehicles stands near a massive sinkhole that opened on Samsen Road near Vajira Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, September 24, 2025

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A man points towards a massive sinkhole that opened on Samsen Road near Vajira Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, September 24, 2025

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A sinkhole is a depression in the ground caused by the collapse of underlying rock, often triggered by natural causes

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Image shows an exposed pipe filling up the sinkhole with water

A sinkhole is a depression in the ground caused by the collapse of underlying rock, often triggered by natural causes.

But they can also be formed by the collapse of man-made underground voids.

In addition, issues like climate change, which have resulted in more frequent and heavier rainfall, as well as increasing urbanisation, can cause sinkholes.

The terrifying incident comes several months after a South Korean motorcyclist plunged to his death after a massive sinkhole gave way in a Seoul street, swallowing him.

The 34-year-old man, named only as Park, was found 164 ft underground, around 17 hours the ground opened up in the Meyongil-dong district of the South Korean capital back in March.

Terrifying footage filmed from the dashboard of a vehicle shows the moment the road collapses into the ground as a white car narrowly passes over it and makes it to safety.

But the video shows how the motorcyclist wasn’t so lucky, as he is seen disappearing into the hole.

‘He was found without a pulse and unconscious,’ an official Gangdong-gu Fire Department said during a briefing today.

Park was riding his motorcycle home when the ground caved in on Monday evening, local media reported.

Emergency responders immediately launched a search, but were unable to locate the man until the next morning.