Moment motorcyclist falls to his death in a SINKHOLE after it suddenly opened in the middle of a busy road

This is the horrific moment a South Korean motorcyclist plunged to his death after a massive sinkhole gave way in a Seoul street, swallowing him. 

The 34-year-old man, named only as Park, was found 164 ft underground, around 17 hours the ground opened up in the Meyongil-dong district of the South Korean capital. 

Terrifying footage filmed from the dashboard of a vehicle shows the moment the road collapses into the ground as a white car narrowly passes over it and makes it to safety. 

But the video shows how the motorcyclist wasnt so lucky, as he is seen disappearing into the hole. 

He was found without a pulse and unconscious, an official Gangdong-gu Fire Department said during a briefing today.

Park was riding his motorcycle home when the ground caved in on Monday evening, local media reported. 

Emergency responders immediately launched a search, but were unable to locate the man until the next morning. 

According to emergency officer Kim Chang Seob, Park was found wearing a helmet and motorcycle boots, and that rescue workers found his Japanese-made motorcycle and mobile phone before reaching his body. 

A 34-year-old South Korean motorcylist was found dead today after being swallowed by a sinkhole in Seoul on Monday evening 

Terrifying footage captured the moment the horrific incident unfolded 

The man, named by local media only as Park, was on his way home on Monday evening when the sinkhole gave way 

Kim added that rescuers had to use excavators, shovels and other equipment to find him.

The cause of the sinkhole was under investigation.

Seoul officials said a total of 223 sinkholes had appeared in the city from between 2015 to 2024. 

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the site on Monday night and asked authorities to find why the sinkhole happened and prevent recurrences of similar incidents. 

The incident comes after an elderly truck driver in Japan was swallowed by a sinkhole last month.

The unnamed 74-year-old male driver plummeted into the hole when the ground suddenly collapsed at an intersection in Yashio City, northeast of Tokyo.

Television footage captured the asphalt road cracking and collapsing into the sinkhole, knocking down billboards. 

At first the sinkhole was roughly 33-feet wide and 16-feet deep, but it has since grown to twice that size, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool. 

Emergency responders immediately launched a search but were unable to locate his body until the following morning 

The cause of the sinkhole was under investigation

A sinkhole is a depression in the ground caused by the collapse of underlying rock, often triggered by natural causes. 

But they can also be formed by the collapse of man-made underground voids. 

In addition, issues like climate change, which have resulted in more frequent and heavier rainfall, as well as increasing urbanisation, can cause sinkholes.