Moment houseboat is swallowed by sinkhole opening on canal

Dramatic footage shows the moment a narrowboat plunges into a massive ‘sinkhole’, before the canal is drained of water.

A ‘major incident’ was declared earlier this morning, after the collapse in the Chemistry area of Whitchurch in Shropshire at around 4.20am.

Later four narrowboats could be seen sitting on the mud in Llangollen Canal where the water has drained completely, with two in the hole and one teetering over the edge.

Much of the water appears to have gone into an adjacent field, via a collapsed bank.

Those on the two boats which ended up in the hole managed to jump off in time, while people in nearby boats were rescued by Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Now footage has been shared of one of the boats tipping over the edge into the hole. It was posted online by Paul Smith-Storey, who runs a YouTube channel called Narrowboat Life Unlocked, under the title ‘Huge Breach on The Canal’.

His boat had been moored just 18 yards away from the hole when he was woken by the sounds of objects crashing around on his boat, which was listing.

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One of the boats which ended up in the hole is owned by Bob Wood, 75, who was onboard and asleep when the vessel started being sucked towards the crater.

He woke up to go to the toilet and noticed the boat was listing, so opened the back door to find water running away from the boat.

‘I jumped on the back and stepped off and that bit was going down at that second,’ he said. ‘The back went eight foot in the air and I landed on my front,’ he said.

Mr Wood then ran to the boat next to him to alert the man inside, banging on the side to wake him up.

‘He got out really quickly and his boat went down as well. My boat went nose down and his went stern first,’ he added.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to the hole at 4.22am this morning.

A spokesperson for the fire and rescue service said: ‘Three boats had been caught in a developing sinkhole approximately 50 metres by 50 metres in size and crews helped more than 10 members of the public to safety.

‘Firefighters have been working in challenging conditions with unstable ground and rapidly moving water, crews immediately established upstream and downstream safety sectors and began mitigating water flow using barge boards and water gate systems.’

West Mercia Police also described the hole as a sinkhole, although the Canal and River Trust said it wasn’t yet clear what caused the collapse.

They added that crews were working together with multiple agencies at the scene, including police, West Midlands Ambulance Service, the Canal & River Trust, the Environment Agency, local authority emergency planning officers, and National Resilience.

Police said there are no reports of casualties, and boaters and other affected residents are being assisted by the fire service.

It asked people to avoid the area and seek alternative routes.

In his video, which he began filming shortly after waking up, Mr Smith-Storey told viewers: ‘It is 20 past four in the morning, we have just heard a crash, it woke us both up.

‘The boat is lifting badly, we have gone outside. Phil has just got up, he said he walked forward and there is a breach.

‘Everything has fallen over on the boat, the level has gone down by at least two feet and the flow of water is incredible, I am going to get off.’

Later in the video he says they had originally planned to move the boat to the area where the hole is, but didn’t.

He said they spoke to one of the owners who lost their boat in the hole.

‘Thank the lord he got off his boat’, he said, before adding how ‘heartbreaking’ the incident was for the owners of the affected boats.

Getting emotional he said: ‘I am glad everyone is alright but it is their homes and it is a few days before Christmas.’

Andy Hall, a councillor in Whitchurch, said people had thought it was an earthquake.

He added: ‘We’ve lost a couple of boats, one is sitting at the bottom of the sinkhole at the moment.

‘There’s one teetering on the edge and could slide down at any time.

‘More has fallen away since we’ve been here this morning.’

He told the BBC that ‘millions of gallons of water’ had gone in to a field next to the canal.

Lorraine Barlow, who lives on a boat called The Singing Kettle and was moored near the site, told the BBC: ‘About 4.20 this morning I could feel that there was something amiss, there seemed to be a current coming from underneath the boat, and bubbling, it sounded really unusual.’

She said the boat then started tilting to the middle of the canal and she felt the mooring ropes get tighter.

Ms Barlow left the boat and noticed the section where there was no water and saw emergency workers at the scene.

Another Whitchurch councillor, Sho Abdul, said the fact no one was hurt was an ‘absolute miracle’.

He added: ‘We were so shocked and seeing it – it was like an explosive had gone off.

‘It’s an absolute crater, it’s devastating – especially for the people who use this area often.

‘I walk my dogs around here and I know a lot of people will want to around Christmas, so its sad.

‘But more importantly it is just incredible nobody was hurt.’

Paul Donnelly, from Middlewich-based Floating Holidays, came to assess the scene amid concerns about the impact on the canal and its traffic.

He said the canal is a ‘huge focus for tourism’ and the incident will have a major long term impact for businesses that use the canal.

He added the route is known to attract people from across the world.

A spokesperson for the Canal and River Trust called the breach ‘highly distressing’ for boat owners.

They added: ‘Heartbreakingly, two boats were washed into the breach hole and there is a further two right next to the hole.

‘There are a further six boats away from the breach site which are currently not in water, but we are hoping to get those back afloat in the coming days. The incident is no longer declared as a major incident by the emergency services.’

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, added: ‘Our teams have been on site since the early hours, securing and making the canal safe and assisting the boat owners impacted.

‘The most important thing is that all those affected are safe and, working with the local authority, there is accommodation in place for the people and pets unable to return to their boats this evening.’

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