A man died mowing the lawn in Bad Sulza, Thuringia. The 62-year-old fell into a hole that suddenly opened up. The cause of the hole and the exact course of the fatal fall are still unknown.
In a possible sudden sinkhole in Bad Sulza (Weimarer Land) in Thuringia, a man who was mowing his lawn fell into a hole and died. The cause of the approximately six meter deep and one meter wide hole remains open.
“Unfortunately, we can’t say anything about the cause of the event at the moment,” said the President of the Thuringian State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation (TLUBN), Mario Suckert, on Monday evening. Employees were on site shortly after the accident to check , how it could come to this.On Tuesday, the cause research should continue.
A police spokesman said it was not yet clear whether the man was swept away on Monday when the earth suddenly opened up in the garden of the pension or whether, on closer inspection, he fell into the approximately six meter deep hole. His wife was looking for the 62-year-old and only found the lawnmower and a hole in the garden. Rescue workers could only get the man dead out of the hole.
The earth gave way steadily during the rescue efforts, said the police spokesman. Could there be more sinkholes in the region? “The concern is definitely there.” Around the collapse site, a radius of a good 50 meters was cordoned off on Monday.
Whether it is actually a sinkhole or a so-called day break, which comes from an old mine, remains to be checked, said TLUBN President Suckert. Sinkholes are natural events that are caused in particular by water-soluble rock layers. These dissolve and overlying, non-water-soluble rock layers break into the resulting cavity. In Thuringia this happens about 20 times a year; this year already seven times.
Daily fractures, on the other hand, are usually caused by the collapse of unfilled old mine tunnels underground, which then break through to the earth’s surface, and according to the TLUBN they are rather rare.
