I only had my car for two weeks before it fell in the South Shields sinkhole

Kiera Hall, 17, was left in floods of tears when she discovered her black car, that she has only had for two weeks, was in the hole.

The A-level student said: "I got really lucky, there’s only a mark on the front.“I was sobbing this morning. I looked into the street and saw blue lights.

"My car was vertical in the hole and I burst into tears.

"I passed my driving test two days before Christmas and got my car two weeks ago and this has happened.

"It’s just unlucky. I’m not worried about parking my car in the street again I just hope it’s alright."

Lucy Mouter, 33, woke to find her partner’s BMW in the sink hole.

The commercial agency surveyor said: "I heard a car alarm first thing in the morning.

"It’s my partner’s car who is working away so I had to break the news."

He was quite shocked."I was supposed to be in work this morning but I called my boss and said ‘you’ll never believe what’s happened’.

"It doesn’t look like the car is too scraped up after we pulled it out.

"We don’t know how it’s going to run but we will take it to a garage and see what’s broken."I usually park my car on that side of the road but I didn’t last night, thankfully.

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"We haven’t been evacuated. The people in the home next to where the sinkhole is have been removed."I thought someone had hit the three cars at first but then I realised they were in a sinkhole.

"The police were already here when I got up so the someone must have contacted them."One concerned local said: "I didn’t witness the sink hole happening.

I woke up to see loads of lights."It’s really concerning. I worry that it’s going to happen in other areas of the road."I don’t know what could have caused it. It was raining quite heavily last night and we just had that storm so maybe that’s something to do with it."