A man whose wife is fighting an extremely rare, life-threatening disease has appealed to the public to help her secure a drug that could turn her life around.

Crews with heavy equipment began the demolition of a Florida home over a huge sinkhole where a man is presumed dead after being swallowed by the earth three days ago.

Efforts to find the body of a man swallowed by a sinkhole under his Florida home were called off amid fears that the building would collapse on rescuers.