60 flee as tunnel collapse puts flats in jeopardy

More than 60 people were evacuated from a Sydney block of flats and traffic on one of the city’s main roads was plunged into chaos after part of a new tunnel being built there collapsed.

The three-storey apartment block was evacuated in the early hours of the morning, local time, after the collapse opened up a 33 by 26ft hole. Television images showed huge cracks in the building and part of a wall crumbling into the hole. Nobody was injured.

New South Wales state roads minister Joe Tripodi told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio the exact cause of the gaping hole was being investigated.

But he added, “Obviously there’s been some rock slippage in a ventilation tunnel that was being constructed or excavated.”

The flats were close to a new tunnel being built in northern Sydney’s Lane Cove neighbourhood.

Police superintendent Doreen Cruikshank said she believed there was a chance the entire block would collapse. Construction workers pumped concrete into the hole in an attempt to stabilise the building.

“There’s a massive, great big hole in the middle of the pavement that goes all the way down to the tunnel,” resident Neil Smith said.

Leighton Holdings, the company responsible for the tunnel’s construction, apologised for the subsidence, which it blamed on “an unforeseen geological event”. The company said it was investigating the collapse.

The New South Wales government has been under fire in recent weeks over another recently-opened tunnel under downtown Sydney which was blamed for gridlocking some city streets as motorists attempted to avoid using the tunnel and paying a toll.