CHICAGO SINKHOLE

A large sinkhole opened up in a residential Chicago neighborhood swallowing up three cars and injuring dozens.

The 40-foot crater appeared at around 5.15 am at South Houston Avenue on the Southeast Side of the city and the man was rescued from the hole by fire crews. 

The Chicago Fire Department arrived at 5.30 am when there were two vehicles in the hole. A third car fell in after authorities arrived as the crater continued to expand.

The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital along with another three dozens people who accidentally walked into the hole.

The first man was driving an SUV along the road in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood when the ground buckled beneath him. He was trying to drive around the hole when road caved in and he fell into the crater inside his car.  

The second vehicle was parked. Then, after fire crews arrived at the scene, video footage shows them looking on helplessly as the third car topples into the crater.

Eyewitness Laide Giwa was about to get in the car but was waved away by fire crews.

A fourth car was towed from the edge of the hole before it was also claimed by the crater that expanded from 20 to 40 feet.

Tom LaPorte, a spokesman for the Water Department, told the Tribune that the hole resulted from a water main breaking in the area and water gushing underground.

There has also been torrential rain and severe flooding in the Chicago area that contributed to the problem. Officials are also looking into the age of the water main which could date back to 1915.