TOKYO -- An oval-shaped pit suddenly formed on a busy road in Yashio, Japan, on Tuesday, taking down a truck and trapping the driver inside. Emergency crews battled unstable ground and debris.

A massive sinkhole has appeared at an intersection near Tokyo, swallowing a truck and its driver, according to multiple reports. Two rescuers have reportedly been injured in their attempt to retrieve the driver.

A large sinkhole swallowed a truck Tuesday after appearing at an intersection in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, with a man rescued following the incident. Police received an emergency call at around 9:50 a.

"It is thought to have been caused by a crack in the Nakagawa River Basin sewer pipe. As a result of this collapse, a passing truck fell in," said Saitama's governor Motohiro Ono at a press briefing on Tuesday, adding that rescuing the driver was the primary initiative.

The driver of the truck could communicate with rescue teams when his truck was first swallowed, but there are fears for his safety as sediment fills the hole.

The Oku-Musashi Ekiden is a challenging race with a 120-meter elevation difference, and some participating teams have also competed in the national high school ekiden, the Hakone Ekiden and the New Year Ekiden road relay races. The principals apparently trained for the race by running in hilly areas.

Rescuers battled to rescue a man in a truck trapped for two days in a huge sinkhole near the capital Tokyo on Wednesday. His fate, however, is unclear as water accumulating in the hole hindered the rescue efforts with the driver's seat now buried in sand, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The Vietnamese communities in Japan’s Saitama prefecture and the U.K.’s London marked the Tet (lunar New Year) holiday with celebrations that bridge cultural distances and preserve traditional heritage.