WATCH:Shanghai sinkhole swallows roadway in sudden collapse
Shanghai roadway vanishes into sudden sinkhole as CCTV catches the collapse live.
Posted For: Scrooge
A massive sinkhole tore open a bustling Shanghai street this week, swallowing a large stretch of roadway in seconds and sending cracks snaking through nearby buildings. Security cameras captured the terrifying moment as the ground buckled without warning, transforming an ordinary street into a yawning chasm that dominates the footage. Vehicles veered sharply to avoid the collapse while onlookers froze in shock, the suddenness of the disaster visible from multiple angles.
The collapse occurred near Qixin Road in Minhang District, where construction crews had reported a water leak just a day earlier, on 11 February. By Thursday morning, that minor issue escalated into a full-blown disaster: a 10 to 20-metre-wide hole plunged into the earth, its edges crumbling as asphalt folded like paper. The video highlights the drama—street lamps swaying, debris tumbling into the pit, and pavement folding inward. Remarkably, no one was killed, though the close calls and damage to nearby structures left local residents shaken.
Shanghai’s soft alluvial soil makes the city prone to subsidence, a risk worsened by decades of groundwater pumping and rapid urban development. Experts cite underground voids from pipe bursts, unstable sand layers, and aging infrastructure as the usual triggers for such events. Data show that 72 percent of China’s sinkholes since 2017 have links to human activity, from shoddy construction to utility failures. Just two years ago, in January 2024, a sewage pipe burst in Minhang caused another road to collapse nearly 10 metres deep—again, with no injuries. The latest footage mirrors that incident but on a larger scale, with pavement heaving before giving way entirely.
🇨🇳 Massive Sinkhole Suddenly Swallows Large Stretch of Roadway in Shanghai, China pic.twitter.com/HfZr1gb4Hz
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) February 12, 2026
Emergency crews rushed to secure the site, setting up barriers and pumping water while the China Railway Tunnel Bureau led repairs near the under-construction Jiamin Line. The video also captures the frantic efforts, with diggers probing the edges as water gushed from the pit, suggesting a burst main below. For residents, it is a stark reminder of the hidden hazards beneath one of the world’s largest cities, where gleaming skyscrapers conceal unstable ground.
The clip shows the ground splitting in real time—the spiderweb cracks, the sudden plunge that swallows the road, and the chaos as bystanders scramble to safety. It is a dramatic illustration of how quickly urban stability can vanish in cities built fast on fragile foundations, pulling viewers right to the edge of disaster.
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