A 200-metre-long hole opened up in a
road running next to the Arno River in central Florence early on
Wednesday.
"No one is injured, there's just damage - huge damage,"
said Mayor Dario Nardella after arriving at the site on Lungarno
Torrigiani, between the Ponte Vecchio and Ponte alle Grazie
bridges.
Around 20 cars parked in the area were taken into the hole.
The residents of two apartment buildings next to it have
been told to leave their homes as a precaution, Nardella said.
The mayor said the hole seems to have been caused by a
burst water pipe.
"At around 12:30 at night the municipal police were called
and they saw that a pipe of the Lungarno aqueduct was broken,"
he said.
"At 1.30 the alarm became serious because a
70-centimetre-diametre pipe burst. The collapse (of the road)
took place at 6.14. We have to work out how this breakage caused
the collapse".
At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, about 10 metres of additional road
surface collapsed into the already-open sinkhole.
Nardella said that buildings were not at risk for
collapsing.
The Palazzo Pitti Museum remained closed Wednesday due to a
lack of water supply as a result of the collapse.
The Boboli Gardens remained open but with a reduced-price
ticket of one euro.
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