RESIDENTS have described the shocking moment a huge sinkhole appeared in a busy Prestwich road.

The six-metre wide chasm appeared in Heywood Road, at around 2am on Monday, when residents were woken by a loud noise as the surface collapsed.

Busy Heywood Road is now shut between Bury Old Road and Heys Road.

Tom and Denise Holt, who have lived in Heywood Road for 41 years, said they could not believe the size of the hole when they opened their curtains.

Mrs Holt said: “I looked outside and actually gasped. I just thought oh my goodness, thank God no one was hurt.

“It’s big enough for a car to fit inside – it is absolutely huge.”

The pair, who are members of Heywood Road Safety Group, believe that the amount of traffic and size of vehicles using the road may have contributed to the damage.

Mr Holt said: “It’s come as a huge shock. In our whole time here we have never seen anything like it.

“There was another sinkhole which appeared a bit further down the road a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t the size of this.

“That means there have been two sinkholes either side of our front door now. It’s definitely worrying.”

Heywood Road Safety Group was set up earlier this year, in an effort to introduce traffic calming measures to the road.

Mr Holt added: “We are already having conversations with local councillors trying to devise a scheme to calm traffic.

“We’ve noticed in the last few years there has been a huge increase in traffic and a lot of lorries and trucks using the road.

“It can’t be doing any good for the road surface – there are so many potholes which have been left unfilled.

“There’s never been any road maintenance carried out around here and there needs to be because this whole road is built on sand.”

Nobody was injured and all nearby cars were moved in time.

Police at Whitefield tweeted: "Give Heywood Rd Prestwich by Scholes Lane a miss for the next week or so. Big sinkhole one of our Night Sgts is looking into."

A fire service spokesman said: "We were first on the scene. According to local residents, there had been noises and grumbling for about 45 minutes.

"Then, when they looked out of the window, the hole was almost as big as it is now.

"It was called in by someone who had been driving along and stopped about 4m short of it. A few people put their bins around it to stop cars driving in.

"It's a big hole, our engine would have easily fit inside."

A United Utilities spokesman added: “Our engineers have been out to make the area safe and to put temporary measures in place to keep the sewer functioning.

“We’re now making preparations to repair the damaged sewer, but until we have assessed the extent of the collapse it is difficult to say how long the work will take.

“We’re really sorry to our customers for the inconvenience of the road works. It’s a residential street and local diversions are available but we appreciate it’s a pain and hope to have everything back to normal as quickly as we can.”

The sinkhole is significantly bigger than one that appeared in Radcliffe New Road, Whitefield, last month.