A hole lot of trouble for car

A CAR fell into a sinkhole in a Welsh castle’s car park.

Luke Davies said his mother’s car fell bonnet-first into the hole at Craig y Nos Castle in the upper Swansea Valley.

Mr Davies said he was in Swansea when he received a call from his father telling him about what happened.

The 30-year-old said his mum, who works in the castle, had left the car in the car park in the morning and that not long before she was due to finish work at around 4pm she found out about the sinkhole.

“She was in shock and at first she thought it was a joke,” he added.

“The car was upside down. A customer was in the car park when it started sinking – they saw it happen and how it gradually went down.

“They spoke to a member of staff but by the time my mum found out the car had sunk completely.”

Mr Davies, from Coelbren, near Ystradgynlais, said the manager attached a rope to his truck and to the car to stop it from going any further as, below the car, the sinkhole was around 10ft in the deepest part.

He said: “The pictures don’t do justice to how deep it was – I didn’t realise how bad it was until I saw it.

“We had to wait for recovery for a couple of hours and then they were concerned about causing more damage to the car while towing it out. We did consider getting a crane but we couldn’t get one.”

In the end, they had to use a 4x4 Range Rover and the recovery vehicle to get it out, with both of them pulling at the same time, as they were concerned the car would go on to its side.

It wasn’t until 7.30pm that they got the car out, he continued, and it is currently being assessed so they don’t know what the extent of the damage is.

It was believed the sinkhole may have been caused by a stream of water coming from the mountain opposite the castle, eroding ground under the car park.

“We are very grateful that no-one was hurt,” said Mr Davies.