MEXICO CITY, MEXICO — A delivery truck loaded with Jarritos soft drinks was nearly swallowed whole by a large sinkhole that suddenly opened on a residential street in Iztapalapa, Mexico City's most populous borough. The incident occurred around midday on Saturday, September 13, 2025.
No injuries were reported. Videos of the event, shared widely on social media, show the truck's rear end first plunging into the hole before the vehicle's weight causes the surrounding asphalt to collapse, sinking it completely.
Official Response and Cause
Civil protection units quickly arrived at the scene to secure the area and divert traffic. The mayor of Iztapalapa, Aleida Alavez, visited the site to coordinate the response.
"The first reports indicate that it was the drainage network—remember that it is very old—that collapsed," Mayor Alavez stated in a social media post. She explained that the truck initially sank partially, and its weight caused the ground to give way completely while officials were coordinating preventive actions.
A heavy-duty boom crane was brought in to carefully extract the vehicle from the hole. The mayor assured concerned residents that the site would be properly remediated.
A Common Problem
Sinkholes are a frequent problem in Mexico City, which is built on the soft sediments of a former lakebed. Widespread subsidence from decades of groundwater extraction, combined with aging infrastructure and heavy rainfall, makes the ground particularly unstable. Boroughs like Iztapalapa are especially prone to these types of ground failures.
