“There was a leak in the water pipe – water from the pipe eroded [earth] under the road so this incident happened,” he said, adding that there were no known casualties.
“The water that eroded brought some soil that dropped down to an under-construction subway station, causing the collapse,” Suriyachai added.
The tunnel is part of an underground service being built by the state-run Mass Rapid Transit Authority, which said it would investigate the cause of the cave-in.
Suriyachai said the local police station facing the collapsed road was evacuated.
Senior police officer Sayam Boonsom also said he had ordered the evacuation of nearby apartment blocks.
Outpatient services at Vajira Hospital were suspended, and nearby buildings were evacuated. Photo / Chanakarn Laosarakham, AFP
“The location is at a station, and the soil was sucked into the site … it collapsed,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told AFP at the scene.
A video posted on social media and verified by AFP shows several people running from a construction area on Samsen Road as the street cracks open and collapses, revealing a water-filled hole.
Vajira Hospital, a teaching facility for one of Thailand’s top medical universities, said in a Facebook post it was suspending outpatient services, adding that they would “resume as soon as possible”.
Noppadech Pitpeng, a 27-year-old hospital staffer who lives in a nearby building, said he was frightened by a rumbling sound that woke him up.
“The sound was like an electricity pole collapsing and my whole flat shook,” he said.
-Agence France-Presse