The cavity has expanded to 40 metres (130 feet) across, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool, since opening up in a city just north of Tokyo on Tuesday morning, officials said.
“It is an extremely dangerous condition,“ local fire chief Tetsuji Sato told reporters on Thursday at the traffic intersection where dozens of rescuers have been working around the clock.
He added that groundwater was leaking inside and that the hole was “continuing to cave in”.
- Eroding walls -
Authorities hoped to complete the 30-metre slope on Friday, but a local official said it may take several days.
Initially, the hole was around five metres in diameter but it has since combined with a much larger cavity that opened during the rescue operation on Tuesday night.
This has also made it dangerous to place heavy machinery nearby.
“Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking to use less water as much as possible,“ an official told AFP.
“It feels rather abnormal that the search is taking this long. I wonder if he could’ve been saved much sooner,“ Takuya Koroku, a local factory worker, told AFP on Thursday.
“I’m scared to go nearby,“ the 51-year-old added.
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