Watch | Sudden collapse, massive sinkhole swallows road in Shanghai

A massive sinkhole opened up on Qixin Road in Shanghai on February 11, 2026. CCTV footage captures cracks opening up in the tarmac, vehicles, motorcycles, and streetlamps getting swallowed into the void. At first, pedestrians were walking around so calmly that it appeared like a controlled demolition. Soon, they scattered as the sinkhole continued to slurp down pavements. The scale of the sinkhole was huge; there was damage to infrastructure, but no fatalities were reported.

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Workers have witnessed water leaks in the area during the Jiam Metro line excavations, which weakened the surrounding soft soil. But nobody predicted this, the minor cracks rapidly expanded to a 10-20 meter wide crater, sidewalks folding inside, and debris accumulating underground. Shanghai is built on the Yangtze delta muck. The delta is composed of Quaternary clastic sediments, consisting of fine-grained silts, clays, and loose, soft alluvial soils. which makes it prone to leakage and easy loss of structural integrity. Emergency crews from the China Railway Tunnel Bureau rushed to stabilise the site. They have cordoned off the area, halted traffics and deployed pipes to manage flooding from the leakage of the pipe.