Sinkhole strikes Busan again

[Anchor]

Another large ground subsidence occurred today (4.14) following yesterday's (4.13) incident near the Busan Metro construction site.

So far, there have been more than 10 instances of ground subsidence in the vicinity of this construction site, causing significant anxiety among citizens.

Kim Young-rok reports.

[Report]

One side of the road gradually sinks, and suddenly a hole opens up.

A motorcycle passes by just next to it, narrowly avoiding the danger.

Around 7 AM today, a ground subsidence measuring 3 meters in diameter and 2 meters in depth occurred in Sasang-gu, Busan.

This happened just 200 meters away from where a large ground subsidence occurred yesterday, marking another incident within a day.

[Kim Joon-soo/Local Merchant: "It was nerve-wracking. If I was gathering my things and the whole building came down..."]

It has been confirmed that there were signs of warning, such as a utility pole next to the accident site sinking about 1 meter early yesterday morning.

This ground subsidence also occurred right next to the Busan Metro Sasang-Hadan line construction site.

Both locations were identified as having no significant issues in a recent ground survey conducted by the city of Busan.

Since 2023, there have been 14 instances of ground subsidence in this area.

These incidents have occurred intensively along the Sasang-Hadan line construction route.

Busan Transportation Corporation claims that the repeated ground subsidence is not significantly related to the subway construction.

[Busan Transportation Corporation Official: "We detected the issue during our site inspection. There was some water leakage into a side drainage channel, which led to the ground sinking."]

Now that even areas around highway overpasses are collapsing, public anxiety is growing.

[Jeon Hyun-jun/Sasang-gu, Busan: "I'm worried about what will happen if the bridge collapses."]

The city of Busan has stated that it will manage the area around the construction site specially, but it has not disclosed the ground subsidence risk map, citing reasons such as property rights infringement.

KBS News, Kim Young-rok.