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Full screen police and rescue personnel at the drain hole. The picture is from Thursday, since then the hole has grown further. Photo: Yu Matsuda/AP/TT
A feverish fight is going on on the outskirts of Tokyo to save a man who is stuck in a large drain hole.
Four days after the drain hole swallowed the man’s truck, a long ramp is ready to get him up. But the effort is threatened by snowfall.
Rescue personnel have worked at the 40 meter wide drain hole since Tuesday. Then the hole in the Tokyo suburb of Yashio swallowed a truck and its driver that has stuck 15 meters down in depth since then.
As the time has passed, the hole has expanded and attempts to get the 74-year-old man failed.
After trying to lift the truck with a crane and to dig forward, the rescue personnel have built a 30 meter long ramp to be lowered to the vehicle.
– We will remove the garbage and save the driver as soon as possible, says regional governor Motohiro Ono according to AFP.
But it is starting to be in a hurry, not least because up to a decimeter snow is expected to fall over the next few days, writes Japan Times.
The man’s health condition is not clear. He was reported to have been awake and talkable this week, but the rescue effort is made more difficult by the unstable ground, which also prevented communication with him.
The hole was first ten meters wide and five meters deep has since grown rapidly at the same time as soil and debris have covered the cab of the truck.
The drainage hole is believed to have been caused by the drainage system collapsing, and both rainwater and wastewater have slowly begun to fill the hole.
In order to relieve the sewer system, the authorities have asked just over one million inhabitants in the districts around the slop hole not to shower or bathe-or use washing machines, reports the Japanese broadcaster NHK.
They have also begun to divert wastewater to the nearby river Edo.