Massive sinkhole in Bangkok street forces evacuations

A portion of a busy road in Thailand's capital caved in on Wednesday, leaving a hole dozens of metres deep that forced people to evacuate and drew a visit from the prime minister.

Just outside a local police station and Vajira Hospital in a residential district of Bangkok, a roughly 50-metre hole pulled down power lines and exposed a burst pipe gushing water, journalists saw.

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster prevention department, told reporters at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to heavy rain and a leaky pipe that eroded earth under the road.

"The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse," he said, adding that there were no known casualties.

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.

Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited the site, telling reporters he was "concerned" and had ordered people at risk to be moved out of the area.

Anutin also said he expected repairs to the collapsed subway tunnel to take about a year, local media reported.

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

Officers from the station later set up a temporary base about 2.4 kilometres from the site.

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

Emergency workers using a vehicle-size harness and crane later removed the vehicle from the precipice, but at least one truck fell into the hole as the street sank in, local media reported.

Damage is seen after a road collapse near Vajira Hospital in Bangkok Thailand. AP

"The location is at a station, and the soil was sucked into the site... it collapsed," Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said earlier.

A video posted on social media and verified by AFP shows several people running from a construction area on Samsen Road as the street cracks open and collapses, revealing a water-filled hole.

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

Vajira Hospital, a teaching facility for one of Thailand's top medical universities, said in a statement that outpatient services would be suspended until Thursday.

Its building near the site was temporarily closed but surgery and emergency services were operating as normal, it added.

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.

Agence France-Presse