Headteacher falls into sinkhole before school fair
- Published
Workers "pulled out the stops" after a sinkhole opened up
A headteacher has said "every day is an exciting day" after falling into a sinkhole ahead of his school's summer fair.
Tony James was setting up for the event when the hole opened up at the edge of the field at Malvern Primary in Knowsley on Thursday.
He told BBC Radio Merseyside he was fine and had no significant injuries.
A council spokeswoman said the sinkhole "seems to have been caused by a collapsed drain".
Mr James was trying to lock the school gates near a road when he "stepped into the hole and then began to sink".
"If I'm totally honest, my biggest concern was how's this going to impact what's coming into school."
Known as Malfest, the annual event was set up two years ago to "unite the community after Covid", he said.
However his fear that the fair - which drew 5,500 people last year - would not go ahead was allayed when the council highways team came to the rescue.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Workers were able to speed up assessment with help from contractor Tarmac and fill in the hole, which was about 1.5m (5ft) deep and 3m (10ft) wide.
"I think at one point there were a lot of people standing around looking at the hole thinking 'this can't be done'," Mr James said.
However they "pulled out all the stops" and the fair went ahead earlier with fairground rides and former pupil Lee Butler DJ-ing a set.
The council spokeswoman called it "a happy ending to a dramatic story".
Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, external, Twitter, external and Instagram, external? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk, external