Shropshire sinkhole: Canal boat resident tells of miracle escape after boat swallowed by sinkhole in Whitchurch
A canal boat resident has told of his miracle escape after his boat got swallowed by a 50 metre sinkhole at Whitchurch in Shropshire.
Bob Wood, 75, was sleeping on his canal boat shortly before it was sucked into the giant hole on the Llangollen Canal at Whitchurch at around 4am today.
The incident has left a scene of devastation, with two boats at the bottom of the hole, and others teetering on the edge.
Mr Wood, who has been living on the boat for eight years, had incredibly only moored up at the site last night.
He told how he woke and had to flee the boat as it descended into the giant hole.
He said: “I was in the boat asleep and I thought I needed to go to the toilet so I got up and thought ‘we are leaning a bit’.
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“I thought I was in the middle of a big storm, there was the sound of a lot of water.
“I opened the back door to see why we were tilting and realised it was not raining at all and it was the water running away under the boat.
“I jumped on the back and stepped off and that bit was going down at that second.
“The back went eight foot in the air and I landed on my front.”
Mr Wood said he quickly went to the boat next to him to alert the occupants hammering on the boat to wake them up.
He said: “He got out really quickly and his boat went down as well.
“My boat went nose down and his went stern first.”
Mr Wood said he could not see anything because it was black at the time, adding: “All I could hear was rushing water.”
He described the shock at the disaster, and said it was incredible no one had been hurt.
Mr Wood is currently being looked after by the emergency services.
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