A giant steel pipe lying underground suddenly rises more than 10m from a construction site in a crowded area of Osaka city, Japan.
This steel pipe almost reached an elevated road overnight and no witnesses saw this process.
The strange incident was reported to the police on the morning of March 11 after a pedestrian discovered broken pieces of asphalt falling from a giant steel pipe. Passersby were also confused by this unexpected scene and traffic in the area was congested.
An office worker passing by the construction site shared with public television NHK that he could not understand what had happened.
A man working nearby said that initially he thought a new support pillar for the elevated road had been erected overnight.
According to the Osaka Department of Construction, this steel pipe has a diameter of about 3.5m and once reached 13m above the ground.
The phenomenon of steel pipes protruding abnormally once occurred at a construction site building a drainage system. At that time, workers were connecting the existing sewer line with a rainwater storage canal to prevent flooding.
Officials said that steel pipes are used as soil-holding structures to prevent surrounding soil from collapsing during construction.
However, not long before the incident occurred, workers pumped water out of the pipe, which could cause the hollow structure inside to be pushed out of the ground.
On March 12, firefighters cut a hole in the pipe body and pumped water in, helping to push the steel pipe back into the ground. After that, the remaining part of the pipe only protruded less than 1m above the road surface.
The Osaka city government is expected to cut off the excess pipes that are still exposed on the road surface, but this process could cause a section of road to close for several more days.
