Firefighters inspect the damage after cars were buriedby a sinkhole near the Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence on Wednesday.
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ROWS of cars were swallowed up by a very big sinkhole after an underground water mains broke near the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in Florence.
The Florence sinkhole was about 200m long.
Nardella also urged people with cars parked on or near the Lungarno Torrigiani to remove their vehicles.
A gash in a two-foot-wide water main caused the collapse, Nardella said, according to the AP.
A firefighter report says the hole was caused by the collapse of the water pipe. Schools will reopen Thursday. Hours after the pre-dawn break, authorities were trying to determine Wednesday whether the weakened asphalt could withstand the weight of a crane to extract the waterlogged cars that fell into the hole.
As firemen stood guard around the sunken road just metres from the Ponte Vecchio – where thousands of tourists snap selfies daily among chocolate-box jewellery stores – Florentines and opposition politicians took to social networks in anger.
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Firefighters told BBC that the embankment is thought to have collapsed due to the failure of a large water pipe beneath the surface of the embankment.
