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3 houses evacuated because of Yorkshire sinkhole in No. England

RIPON, England, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Police evacuated three houses in northern England after a 25-foot sinkhole opened in Ripon.

The cause of the ground collapse in the cathedral town was believed to be a gypsum fault, the Yorkshire Post reported. Gypsum, like limestone, dissolves, causing holes and caverns underground that are vulnerable to collapse.

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North Yorkshire police said no injuries were reported. The property where the hole developed was empty at the time, and police were able to retrieve a dog from the house.

Several sinkholes have been reported this month in southern England, including one that forced the closing of a section of the M2 motorway in Kent. A teenager's car disappeared into a hole 30 feet deep in his family's driveway in Buckinghamshire, and last Saturday a 35-foot by 20-foot hole was reported in the London suburb of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.

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