A council has declared a major incident after two sinkholes opened up in a street in Surrey village.
The hole first appeared on Godstone High Street on Monday night after a water pipe burst, growing to at least 20 metres long (65ft) by midday on Tuesday.
A number of homes have since been evacuated and at least one garden has fallen into the hole.
Some residents living within the cordon were told to leave their homes as “quickly as possible” on Tuesday over fears exposed electric cables may cause an explosion.
A second sinkhole has now opened up on the opposite side of the street consuming a driveway.
A car is teetering on the edge of the hole with the owner - who is understood to be away- unable to move it
Godstone High Street remains closed between the Oxted Road and Bletchingley Road junctions and residents have been urged to avoid the area.
Carl Bussey, Surrey County Council Assistant Director for Safer Communities said: “Residents from within the cordon – around 30 properties – are being supported by Tandridge District Council with advice around accommodation. Highways diversions are also in place.”
It is understood the properties were built on the site of a former sand quarry around three years ago.
Residents believe there are caves underneath the area.
One woman told the BBC her family were among those told to evacuate from the area by police.
Noosh Miri said: “The policewoman told us we needed to get out straight away, and in the space of 10 minutes, we got the kids dressed, we grabbed the nearest things that we could find.”
Ms Miri’s family have found temporary accommodation but they believe it could be months until they are able to move back into their home.
Nicola and Damian Styles, 46 and 44, live on Godstone High Street and said they were woken up by police knocking on their door at about half past midnight on Tuesday morning, who told them to evacuate their home because there was a risk of a gas explosion.
"It was a shock," Mrs Styles said.
"My sister lives in Purley so we just drove there in the middle of the night."
Mr Styles said: "We just sort of grabbed everything, the clothes on our back and our work laptops, and drove out quickly.
"We didn't know how long we were going to be out for."
The couple came back to their home at around midday on Tuesday to pick up some items, but later decided to stay at their address.
Asked whether they believe they will have to evacuate again, Mr Styles said: "This is the thing now: we don't know. And we're kind of playing it by chance at the moment.
"They said that they're trying their best but this thing is still eroding away because it's getting bigger, so..."
Operations are now being managed by the Local Resilience Forum, supported by Surrey County Council.
Water and electricity supply issues have now been resolved, but road diversions remain in place.
A spokesperson for SES Water previously said: “Unfortunately, the burst has impacted water supplies to homes in the area and we’re sorry for the disruption this is causing customers.
“We’re working hard to reroute water from across our network to restore supply for those customers.”
Repairs to the road are expected to take several month
