Road collapse swallows 20 cars

About 20 cars fell into the hole. Photos: Reuters/Vigili del Fuoco
About 20 cars fell into the hole. Photos: Reuters/Vigili del Fuoco
No-one was injured in the collapse.
No-one was injured in the collapse.

A stretch of street collapsed in central Florence, dropping a row of parked cars into an underground pipeline and cutting water supplies to part of the ancient city.

The collapse occurred on the Lungarno Torrigiani, a road alongside the Arno River not far from the famous Ponte Vecchio, part of the city's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

About 200 metres of road caved in when a major waterpipe it was sitting on broke, city mayor Dario Nardella said.

Around 20 cars fell into the newly created ditch, awash with water, but no one was injured.

There had been concerns that the saturated asphalt would be unable to handle the weight of cranes, but some machinery was seen removing a number of the sunken cars later in the morning.

Two buildings near the hole were evacuated, local authorities said.

 

 

 

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