Last week a stretch of the M2 in north Kent was closed after a 4.5m-deep hole was discovered in the median strip and on February 2, a teenager's car was swallowed after a 9m-deep crater appeared on a family's driveway in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
North Yorkshire fire and rescue service said a fire engine and a heavy rescue unit from Ripon were at the scene, where cracks had appeared in the ground, damaging a building.
A spokeswoman said: "There are no occupiers in the property and a dog has been successfully rescued. Residents from adjacent properties have been evacuated as a precaution.
"The crews have cordoned off the area and are awaiting the arrival of specialist engineers."
Local resident Barry Dyason, 34, an office worker, said: "Most of the people from the emergency services seem to have gone now, it's mainly people from the utility companies who are still there.
"You can't see the sinkhole because it's between a house and two cottages - it's one of the cottages which was damaged.
"This area is quite well known for gypsum deposits, and there have been properties affected by subsidence - but not sinkholes, that I've heard of.
"There's been some rain around here, but nothing like the floods seen in other parts of the country.
"It's alarming, you see these things reported on television but don't expect it to happen so close to you. Hopefully lightning wouldn't strike twice in such a small area."
The British Geological Survey has said that the most susceptible area in the UK for sinkholes is the Permian gypsum deposits of north-east England, particularly around Ripon.
It says large sinkholes have developed around Ripon, some of which have affected property and infrastructure. This is because gypsum is far more soluble than limestone, and thus dissolves more rapidly.
- AFP
