Story By: Anastasia Smirnova, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

Video Credit: CEN/@chernobrovinaolga

This is the moment a large section of the road appears to melt away after a hot water pipe burst and motorists risk their lives by driving around the crumbling sinkhole.

In the footage, filmed on Kharkovskaya Street in the city of Tyumen in the south-western Russian region of Tyumen Oblast, a small pool of water underneath two large roadside pipes is seen forming into a large sinkhole.

A large section of the road can then be seen as it crumbles into the hot-water pool.

With over half of the road affected by the steaming sinkhole, motorists navigate around it despite the fragile road condition.

According to local media, no one was reported as injured during the incident.

The local authorities arrived on the scene and closed the street to prevent possible accidents.

It is believed that a ruptured hot water pipe weakened the earth in the area which caused the sinkhole.

The investigation and cleanup work is currently ongoing.

The city of Tyumen, founded in 1586, was the first Russian settlement in Siberia. The city supported Russia’s eastward expansion and the city has remained one of the most important industrial and economic centres east of the Ural Mountains.

Located between several important trade routes and with easy access to waterways, Tyumen rapidly developed from a small military settlement to a large industrial city.

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