Old video surfaces online after sinkhole swallows Bangkok road

Published on October 8, 2025 at 09:06
Updated on October 8, 2025 at 09:38
2 min read
By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, AFP Thailand

An old video of a road collapsing in Thailand has resurfaced on social media after a massive sinkhole swallowed parts of a major thoroughfare in the capital Bangkok in September. The circulating clip is more than a year old and was taken in neighbouring Nonthaburi province.

"It's gone! There's a road collapse in Pak Kret. Such incidents are happening daily in Thailand now. Oh my god," reads the Thai-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on September 25, 2025.

The 13-second video shows people trying to pull a yellow motorcycle from a section of collapsed road.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on October 2, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same video surfaced with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook and TikTok after a portion of Samsen Road outside Bangkok's Vajira Hospital caved in on September 24, leaving a roughly 50-metre (160-foot) hole that pulled down power lines and exposed a burst pipe gushing water (archived link).

Khmer-language posts claimed the footage showed an even bigger sinkhole two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the original accident site.

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster prevention department, told AFP at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to heavy rain and a leaky pipe that eroded earth under the road.

The incident prompted a precautionary evacuation and a site survey from prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who ordered an investigation (archived link).

However, the footage has circulated since 2024 and was not filmed in Bangkok.

A reverse image search using the video’s keyframes found an identical clip published on April 6, 2024, in a TikTok post by Thai journalist Watchara Takum, with credit to a witness at the scene (archived link).

Screenshot comparison between the false Facebook post (L) and the TikTok post on April 6, 2024

The video's caption states a hole 15 metres (49 feet) wide and 4 metres deep had appeared in front of a temple in Pak Kret, in Nonthaburi province neighbouring Bangkok.

Subsequent keyword searches found a corresponding CCTV clip of the road collapsing published on Facebook and featured in a news report about the sinkhole in Pak Kret on April 6, 2024 (archived links here and here).

Screenshot of the Facebook post sharing a CCTV footage that captures the moment the road was collapsing

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) later attributed the road collapse to an unstable sand layer caused by its underground power cable project at the nearby Chao Phraya River (archived links here and here).

The site of the road collapse can be seen in Google Maps Street View imagery of the Chaeng Watthana Road in Pak Kret (archived link).

Screenshot comparison between the TikTok video (L) and the Google Maps Street View imagery, with similar elements highlighted by AFP

AFP has debunked other false claims related to the sinkhole in Bangkok.

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