The last person believed to have driven over the site of the St Albans sinkhole has told the Herts Advertiser that he feels “very lucky”.

Bharat Mehta, who lives with his wife on Bridle Close, was returning from the cinema last night at around 12am – just an hour before a 20-metre-wide hole appeared in the street, swallowing the road, pavement and parts of neighbour’s front gardens.

He said: “I was probably the last one to use the road before the hole sank at one o’clock in the morning.”

Bharat, who had been to see the film Everest, said the road had felt “completely normal”, but added that it was probably “too dark to really notice”.

He said: “We got home, got changed and went to bed. Then we didn’t hear anything else until the morning - seven o’clock. The police knocked on the door and said ‘we’ve cordoned off the road, you’ve got to leave’.”

It was at this point that Bharat noticed the sink hole on Fontmell Close. He said: “I couldn’t believe it. It was just so big.”

Bharat and his wife were evacuated from the area to Batchwood Leisure Centre, where arrangements were being made to house all of the affected residents.