A gigantic sinkhole appeared on the streets of Fukuoka in Japan last Tuesday.
At 30 metres (98 feet) wide and 15 metres deep, to say it was fairly large would be an understatement.
The massive hole – which was roughly half the size of an Olympic swimming pool – opened up during construction work on the city’s underground network.
READ MORE: Giant sinkhole swallows Japan city street
In typical Japanese fashion, an earnest apology was issued immediately for the disruption, and a group of men put to work around the clock to clear up the mess.
In a statement, Mayor Soichiro Takashima said: “I apologise for having caused trouble to many people.”
He went on to reassure the people of Fukuoka that the ground was 30 times stronger than before.
In just 48 hours, Japanese workers managed to fill it with wet cement and sand; they fixed the electricity, gas and water lines as well.
There is barely any sign that the sinkhole ever existed, construction workers having filled it in with generous amounts of cement before painting over the tarmac.
The busy street where the hole emerged was reopened for traffic at 5am on Tuesday morning, with a fresh set of power and gas lines installed beneath it.
It marks the latest example of Japan’s remarkable efficiency in fixing problems with infrastructure – something that did not go unnoticed by British users of social media on Tuesday.
“Manchester sinkhole took 10 months to fix… Japan fixes vast Fukuoka city sinkhole – in two days,” Charlie Morrison wrote on Twitter.
