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© UnknownCracks appeared in the ground causing serious damage to at least one house on Magdalens Close in Ripon on Monday evening
Three houses have been evacuated amid fears they could collapse after a 7-metres-wide (25ft) sinkhole opened up in a street.

Police cleared the properties on Magdalen's Close in Ripon, North Yorkshire, at 5.40pm after receiving reports the huge sinkhole had appeared.

A North Yorkshire police spokesman said: "The affected property and two houses nearby have been evacuated and a cordon has been put in place to protect members of the public. At this stage no injuries have been reported."

Officers were carrying out house-to-house checks in the area to warn people close to the affected properties.

Police, fire crews and the ambulance service remained at the scene with utility services' engineers and structural engineers who were assisting with the incident.

The sinkhole is the latest in a spate of them to appear after a 10 metres wide by 6 metres deep one appeared on Saturday morning under homes in a quiet cul-de-sac in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

Last week, a stretch of the M2 in north Kent was closed after a 4-metres-deep hole was discovered in the central reservation and on 2 February, a teenager's car was swallowed after a 9-metres-deep crater appeared on a family's driveway in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
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© Ross ParryCollapse: Part of a house has fallen down after a sinkhole undermined its foundations