Giant sinkhole swallows entire home: mother and baby lucky to escape (video)

A young mother and her baby son are lucky to be alive after escaping from their house just seconds before it was swallowed up by a massive sinkhole in Kazakhstan.

Anastasia Tatarnikov, 28, thought she was running from an earthquake, but the sinkhole reportedly appeared as a result of mining work in the city of Ridder in eastern Kazakhstan.

According to the Daily Mail, Anastasia said: "I was watching TV and then it started flickering and the lights started swinging. I opened the front door and saw a massive pit appearing in the ground.

"I ran back into the house and grabbed my son Kiril out of his cot and ran out through the back door. Seconds later the entire house disappeared into the hole.

"I still can't believe that I have lost everything. I don't have any of the official paperwork from my passport through to my son's hospital documents, with his toys and all our clothes. Everything is gone."

In total, 480 people have been evacuated from the area, as the hole reached 70 metres wide and 30 metres deep.

Anastasia has said she is still in 'shock' over what happened, and has been promised help with rehousing by local officials but has not yet heard anything, reports Orange News.

Managers at the Kazzinca mining company that runs the nearby LLP Altyn Tau East mine have not yet commented on the incident.

Sinkholes have become increasingly common around the world, including the UK. In February, a 30ft sinkhole in Buckinghamshire swallowed an entire car outside a family home.

Sinkholes are caused by erosion and water drainage and are particularly common in chalky enviromnents. Although they're often the result of a natural process, they can also be triggered by human activity: so they often occur near constructions where rain water has gathered on a patch of ground.