Spontaneous sinkhole sucks in two men at a company pool party, Israeli police say
Two men were sucked into a sinkhole that appeared during a company pool party, Israel authorities said. Rescue crews feared the sinkhole would collapse further as they aided the injured man and searched for the body of the other.
The missing man’s body was eventually recovered, authorities said, and his cause of death has not been determined.
The incident unfolded as about 50 people were at a marketing company’s pool party on Thursday, July 21, at a house in the central Israeli town of Karmei Yosef, about 20 miles southeast of Tel-Aviv, Times of Israel reported.
The sinkhole suddenly emerged at the bottom of the in-ground pool, according to Israel Fire and Rescue Authorities.
Video of the incident showed the sinkhole growing quickly, draining the pool and pulling inflatable toys into its vortex. The collapsing ground created a hole nearly 50 feet deep, WLTX reported.
Six people were in the pool at the time, four managed to escape but two men were sucked into the sinkhole, Newsweek reported.
One man managed to climb out, suffering minor injuries, Ynet reported.
Authorities searched for the other man for hours, Times of Israel reported. They brought in a rescue dog with a camera to help, but the search proved difficult and dangerous. When the sinkhole opened, it created tunnels underneath the surrounding structures, WLTX reported. Authorities reinforced the tunnels, afraid they too would collapse.
The rescue crew then recovered the man’s body and identified him as Klil Kimhi, 32, of Tel Aviv, Newsweek reported. Authorities do not know if the man was drowned, crushed, or killed from his fall.
An investigation has begun into the cause of the sinkhole, WLTX reported.
Shmuel Marco, a professor at the Tel Aviv geophysics department, told Ynet that, “There are no known natural sinkholes in that area.”
Instead, Marco attributed the sinkhole to poor construction. “The fact that a sinkhole appeared precisely bellow the pool indicates it was a man-made occurrence and that the water that leaked from the pool caused the ground to become muddy or for a hole to appear and anything above, can just collapse,” he told Ynet.
According to The Times of Israel, the owner of the house — who did not apply for a permit before building the pool — is under scrutiny from authorities.
This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Spontaneous sinkhole sucks in two men at a company pool party, Israeli police say."
