This is the moment when a huge sinkhole suddenly appears in a pavement, swallowing a pedestrian whole.

A CCTV camera caught the incident as it unfolded in Recife, Pernambuco state, north-eastern Brazil on the morning of 5th September.

Footage shows how the pedestrian takes a step with his left foot, only for the sinkhole to appear and his leg to completely disappear into it.

He can be seen falling backwards and is almost completely swallowed up by the hole, causing him to wince in pain.

The woman he was walking alongside moments earlier tends to him and a sanitation worker in a blue uniform runs over and lifts him out of the hole.

Architect Pedro Mendes told local media the following day: “I felt a lot of pain at the time. I had injuries to my arm, my back, and my leg.”

He said he was lucky that he had managed to support himself with his arms and not disappear completely into the hole.

Mendes added: “Fortunately, it happened to me and not to a child or an elderly person. It could have been a lot worse.”

After lifting the architect out of the hole, the sanitation worker and his colleague covered the hazard with some wooden planks.

That evening, the hole was cordoned off, and the next day, the City Hall closed it up.