A sink hole opened up in Leiria today, partially swallowing a van making deliveries to a nearby restaurant.
According to sources from Leiria council, heavy rain will have been at the root of this mini-collapse: two ‘rainwater collectors’ (drains) appear to have given way in the deluge, leading to what has been diplomatically called “a mass movement”.
Speaking to Lusa news agency, councillor for civil protection Luís Lopes stressed that the van has already been extricated from its nosedive into the hole, and no injuries have been reported.
“The driver of the vehicle got out under his own power”, very possibly somewhat bemused.
The upset took place at the entrance to Praça Rodrigues Lobo at around 9.10am, after a period of intense rainfall that triggered other incidents, including flooding and two landslides (minor).
“The rainfall this morning and in the early hours most likely exacerbated this situation, but we believe this was something that already had some damage, though it wasn’t visible. We have teams on site working on repairs, and we hope to be able to restore this situation in the coming days,” said Lopes, conceding that this is not the first time such a structual surprise has visited the old part of the city.
“We had a similar situation nearby in front of the Citizen’s Shop, about 500 meters away as the crow flies. However, this one ends up being a bit larger in size,” he told Lusa.
The problem too is that because this is the ‘older part of Leiria’, there is infrastructure that has been buried and out of sight for many years: “despite the maintenance that has been carried out, it is always difficult to detect these situations, “ said the councillor, adding that “now we’re going to focus on this and then expand the area of intervention a little further to improve these infrastructures.”
In this morning’s incident, Leiria Firefighters, the Public Security Police, SMAS – Municipal Water and Sanitation Services, Lusitânia Gás, the Municipal Civil Protection Service and the Urban Management Department of the Leiria City Council were present.
The site remains closed for “safety reasons, and to carry out an analysis of the damage and begin repairs immediately”.
source: Lusa
