Sinkhole search for woman who was looking for her cat in Pennsylvania

This article was last updated on December 4, 2024

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Sinkhole search for woman who was looking for her cat in Pennsylvania

Rescuers in the US state of Pennsylvania have been searching for a woman in a sinkhole since yesterday. She disappeared while looking for her cat. Local authorities fear she is no longer alive.

The fire brigade used excavators, cameras and listening devices to search for the woman. According to police, a shoe was found nine meters underground.

64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard drove around the town of Marguerite in her car on Monday evening to look for her missing cat Pepper. Her 5-year-old granddaughter was also in the car. Pollard’s family raised the alarm a day later after they lost contact with her. The woman’s car was recovered by police at a restaurant near her home, near the sinkhole. Her granddaughter was in the vehicle unharmed. She had fallen asleep.

Rescuers believe the sinkhole was created quite recently. Restaurant employees and hunters who had been near the sinkhole hours before the incident did not see the hole.

“It looks like the sinkhole opened up when she stood on it,” one officer said of the hole that is as wide as a manhole cover. Due to the digging, the opening is now the size of a small swimming pool.

Sinkholes are becoming more common in Pennsylvania due to many old coal mines collapsing. American media report that there is indeed an old coal mine is under the hole.

A spokesperson for the local environmental protection agency says it will investigate the origin of the hole once the rescue operation is completed. It is not known whether the woman’s cat has been found.