Florida man swallowed by sinkhole feared dead

A Florida man is feared dead after being swallowed by a sinkhole that opened beneath his bedroom.

The man's brother told rescue crews he heard what sounded like "car crash" coming from the bedroom shortly after 11pm last night and then heard his brother screaming.

"When he got there, there was no bedroom left," Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. "There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up".

Jeremy Bush told Tampa TV station WFTS, "There were six of us in the house, five got out".

"I didn't see any part of him when I went in there," Mr Bush said. "I told my father-in-law to grab a shovel and I started digging. Then the cops showed up and pulled me out of the hole and told me the floor was still falling in".

Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers told the media:

Mr Bush tried the rescue his brother from the sinkhole but had to be rescued himself as the sinkhole continued to collapse.

Bill Bracken, the head of an engineering company assisting rescuers, said the sinkhole was as much as nine metres in diameter and six metres deep.

There has been no contact with the missing man since the incident and rescue officials said there are "no signs of life".