A traffic cop in China smartly diverted vehicles around a crack in a busy intersection just minutes before it turned into a giant sinkhole.
Surveillance video captured the scene, during which the traffic officer set out orange traffic cones to block the roadway as a six-foot-deep sinkhole opened in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province,
The Daily Mail reported.
China’s CCTV News released video of the incident. The officer reportedly noticed the crack while patrolling the area, according to the caption on the video.
An investigation into the cause of the sinkhole is under way. Sinkholes usually appear when water erodes bedrock beneath the surface, causing the ground to crumble, the Daily Mail noted.
Sinkholes have disrupted traffic elsewhere around the world in recent days.
A 22-foot by 17-foot area collapsed in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood Thursday,
according to KPIX-TV. The sinkhole, located on Sacramento Street, was reportedly caused by a water main break.
In England, a sinkhole estimated to be about 15-feet deep opened on a road in Sheffield on Sunday, causing traffic delays,
the BBC reported. The cause of that sinkhole is unknown, but some people speculate that it may have been caused by the collapse of an old mine beneath the road.
A sinkhole appeared in a Baltimore street early Saturday morning, damaging a water main and briefly disrupting water services to a small number of nearby customers,
The Baltimore Sun reported. The cause of the sinkhole wasn’t determined, but crews were installing underground duct work nearby.
In Marysville, Washington, a 12-foot-long sinkhole on Interstate 5 caused four-mile backups for more than five hours on Sunday,
The Marysville Globe reported. That hole was only about 7 inches deep, and road crews called it a pothole. It appeared nearby to crews repairing a bridge.
Twitter users seemed impressed by the Chinese traffic officer’s eagle eye.