Woman injured as sinkhole opens up outside London cafe 'just like a trapdoor'

A woman has fallen into a sinkhole which opened up in the pavement outside a London cafe.
An eyewitness reported hearing a "loud scream" before the woman apparently disappeared into the hole.
Police and ambulance services were called to North End Road in Fulham at around 8.50am this morning to reports of a "pavement collapse".

The scene was cordoned off and police confirmed a woman has been injured.

The ambulance service later said the woman, believed to be in her 40s, had been left "shaken" and taken to hospital as a precaution.


Builder Paul Smith, 28, was walking to work when the horror scene unfolded.
He said: "Someone had fallen through - just like a trapdoor. It's crazy. There is a huge hole in the floor and someone has fallen through the pavement.

"It is about a metre wide and about eight foot deep. I couldn't see inside to see if it was a man or a woman but it was a person and the police were all around.

"I was just walking to work and I saw it. It's shocking. There was lots of members of the public surrounding it.

"I tried to get closer with my phone but the police pushed me away - they weren't messing."
According to local stallholders, the sinkhole was known to be a problem and had been cordoned off.
But despite shouts by cafe staff, the woman is said to have squeezed through the chairs and fallen down the hole.

A flower stall owner, who asked not to be named, said: "A man came running out of the cafe.
"The hole had been blocked off with tables and chairs but she had squeezed through and went straight down.

"She didn't have a pram or a buggy, it was a shopping trolley.
"The shop owner was shouting out to her 'Don't come through there'.
"We looked over and she was down, all the way down the hole. She had walked onto it and it had collapsed beneath her."

He and other stall holders dashed over to help the woman, who is believed to be in her 40s.
The stall holder added: "The gentleman came out of the cafe to help her. He was really, really worried.
"By then we were all over there talking to the woman as she was getting up.

"It looked like more bricks could fall on her so we were telling her to get out.
"She was shaky standing up and then went into the cafe."