Japanese authorities have asked hundreds of residents near Tokyo to evacuate as a sinkhole at an intersection grew to more than 40 meters wide, hampering rescuers racing to reach an elderly truck driver whose vehicle was swallowed by the hole.

Officials in Yashio city, located north of Tokyo, are trying to rescue a 74-year-old man whose truck was swallowed by a massive sinkhole on Tuesday. View on euronews

Emergency workers have been hampered by unstable ground since Tuesday, when a truck and its driver were swallowed north of Tokyo.

A massive sinkhole opened on a road in Japan's Saitama Prefecture. Rescue efforts are underway a truck that fell into the sinkhole.

The Yashio City sinkhole continues to get bigger by the day, and rescue teams searching for a truck driver trapped inside have switched tactics in their operation.

A sinkhole near Tokyo that swallowed a dump truck hole on Tuesday has now doubled in wide after combining with a second sinkhole as rescue workers continued their dig to reach the vehicle's driver.

TOKYO -- An oval-shaped pit suddenly formed on a busy road in Yashio, Japan, on Tuesday, taking down a truck and trapping the driver inside. Emergency crews battled unstable ground and debris.

TOKYO, Jan 30 — Japanese authorities have asked 1.2 million people to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage aggravating an operation to rescue a truck driver in a sinkhole. The hole suddenly opened up in Yashio during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, swallowing the lorry.

A truck that fell into a sinkhole that suddenly opened on a road near Tokyo has captured national attention as attempts to rescue the elderly driver drag on. Residents near the hole have taken shelter at a local school,

A massive sinkhole has appeared at an intersection near Tokyo, swallowing a truck and its driver, according to multiple reports. Two rescuers have reportedly been injured in their attempt to retrieve the driver.

Rescue workers in Japan are trying to pull out a truck driver from a sinkhole that appeared on Tuesday and has since widened. The sinkhole appeared in Yashio city in Saitama prefecture, near the capital Tokyo,

"It is thought to have been caused by a crack in the Nakagawa River Basin sewer pipe. As a result of this collapse, a passing truck fell in," said Saitama's governor Motohiro Ono at a press briefing on Tuesday, adding that rescuing the driver was the primary initiative.