New York man's leg swallowed by mid-street sinkhole

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A man crossing a street in Brooklyn ended up in an unusual predicament when his leg was swallowed up by a small sinkhole in the road.

Stephen Suarez, 28, said he was just walking across Myrtle Ave. in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood about 11:15 a.m. Tuesday when the road gave way under one of his legs.

"When I fell, I fell straight down. I fell on my tailbone -- fell straight through," Suarez told CBS New York. "I was in a lot of pain."

Suarez said he was less than a block away from his job at Kings County Auto Body when it happened.

"I thought I was going to fall straight through the ground completely," he said. "I was like, 'Oh no, what the hell is about to happen to me?'"

A video tweeted by @NYScanner shows Suarez being hoisted out of his predicament by firefighters.

Suarez said he is recovering from a hairline fracture in his leg.

The hole was patched up to prevent further incidents, and the Department of Environmental Protection is working to determine the cause of the sinkhole.