A parked car was "swallowed" by a giant pothole in Piazza Albana on Rome's Aventine hill on the afternoon of 29 October.

The crater measures ten by three metres wide and has a depth of four metres. Nobody was injured in the incident.

Three teams of firefighters managed to retrieve the vehicle, a BMW X5, with the aid of a crane. Authorities are now working to ascertain the cause of the chasm, as well as the scale of damage caused to water and gas pipes and electricity cables.

It is the latest in a series of about 50 giant potholes to open up around Rome since the beginning of the year, some of which have cut off water supplies, swallowed cars and even a refuse truck.

The capital's civil protection authorities recently identified eight districts of the city at risk from street collapses: Prenestino, Casilino, Tiburtino, Labicano, Appio, Esquilino, Nemorense and Portuense.