Sinkhole swallows sleeping Florida man from his bedroom

A man has been sucked into the ground from his own bedroom after a 30 metre sinkhole opened beneath his house, according to the Associated Press.

From the outside, it's difficult to tell anything is amiss at the small house near Tampa, Florida but engineers on site say it's directly on top of a sinkhole that opened on Thursday night. The bedroom is the central point from where it extends 15 metres in each direction, Sky News reported.

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Family members said they heard a loud crashing sound and then Jeffrey Bush, 36, screamed for help. But when his brother arrived, there was nothing left of the room but a piece of the mattress sticking up from a gaping hole, according to Sky News.

Jeremy Bush told the news station he jumped into the hole and started digging through the rubble to save his brother. He said the sinkhole nearly swallowed him as well, before a sheriff's deputy, Douglas Duvall, arrived and pulled him to safety.

Authorities evacuated the neighbouring houses. No one has had contact with the victim since he disappeared and authorities presume he is dead. There were five adults, a child and two dogs inside the house when the hole opened, the victim's aunt told the Tampa Bay Times.

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Sinkholes are common in Florida because of the geology of its landscape, which includes limestone and dolomite that erode over time, according to the state's department of environmental protection.