Sinkhole swallows up terrified family inside car

A giant sinkhole has swallowed up a car with a family-of-three inside in dramatic scenes in Peru.

The mum, dad and two-year-old girl were travelling along a road in the northwestern city of Trujilo last Thursday when the almost 5m hole opened up beneath them, Terra Peru reports.

Witnesses filmed the moment passers-by managed to pull the terrified mum and dad up through the car window and to safety with a makeshift rope.

The toddler was also rescued and all escaped with minor bumbs and bruises.

The driver, Edgar Orlando Bartolo Silva, told Terra Peru that he had just stopped the car before it began sinking into the ground.

“Some people helped us, but we were scared, because water began to filter into the vehicle,” Mr Silva said.

The area has been hit with heavy rain and flooding in the past week and the sinkhole is believed to have been caused by a burst sewer pipe, local news agency Andina reported.