Major incident declared over Shropshire cblock ‘sinkhole’

A major incident has been declared over what police have called a sinkhole at a cblock in Shropshire, leaving boats either stricken in a gaping cavity or teetering on the edge of a steep drop.

Pictures appear to show that the structural integrity of a stretch of waterway in the Chemistry area of Whitchurch has completely given way, raising flooding fears.

Two narrowboats are said to have sunk into the hole, into which water looks to have drained completely. Another two are at the edge.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was responding to a landslip and confirmed a cblock was affected. There are no reports of casualties, according to West Mercia Police.

The force asked people to avoid the area and seek alternate routes.

It added that people on other parts of the waterway nearby were being supported by fire crews.

The Cblock and River Trust described the incident as a breach on the cblock, and said its priority was the safety of boaters and those in the immediate area.

“We are carrying out initial investigations into the possible cause of the breach and will provide more details in due course,” it said.

“We will also seek to return water levels either side of the breach as soon as possible and are providing support to the boaters affected and those in the immediate area either side of the breach.”

Andy Hall, a councillor in Whitchurch, said the incident unfolded at about 05:00 GMT.

“We’ve got two boats at the bottom of the sink hole that have fallen down, and we’ve got two boats that are teetering on the edge that could go in at any time,” he told the BBC.

“Obviously [the fire service is] going to make those safe.”

He added: “[People] thought that there was an earthquake.

“To the right, we’ve got the field which has taken probably about a million gallons of water out of the cblock.”

He said the fire service had put in a flood gate to stop the flow of more from the compromised waterway.

“The most important thing is that the cblock itself has been secured by fire and rescue,” he said. “Their biggest worry was that the cblock was going to burst even more and flood residents in the town.”

He said that no one was on board “the two boats that went down”, adding that people on the boats “teetering over the edge” had been helped to safety by fire crews.

He added that contrary to speculation on social media, there had been no bridge collapse.

Lorraine Barlow, who lives on a boat called The Singing Kettle and was moored near the site, said: “About 04:20 this morning I could feel that there was something amiss, there seemed to be a current coming from underneath the boat, and bubbling, it sounded really unusual.

“Then I was tilting to the middle of the cblock, I could feel the ropes were getting tight.”

She said she left the boat and could see the fire service as well as search and rescue teams.

“There was no water on the cblock,” she said.

“I was worried about the ropes and about my cblock boat hanging there.

“It’s an awful thing, I was worried about the other people.”