The ground near a busy highway in northwestern Moscow collapsed on Sunday, no one was injured, the Mayak radio station reported citing a police spokesman.
The sinkhole that formed on Marshala Zhukova Avenue as a result of the cave-in was 15m (49ft) deep and 3m (10ft) wide.
"Preliminarily, asphalt collapsed into a void washed out by water near the road," the spokesman said. "Rescuers and traffic police officers cordoned off the dangerous spot."
However, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily played down the scale of the incident, saying the hole was only 0.5m (1.6ft) wide.
Moscow has seen such incidents before, one of the biggest occurring in 2006, when part of the Leningradskoye highway, which links Moscow and St. Petersburg, sunk in soft ground, burying a truck and an electricity power post.
MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti)
