A 10-metre-deep sinkhole has opened up on the former runway at Manston's makeshift lorry park.

Investigators are on site attempting to determine the cause of the collapse, which has reduced the capacity of the holding area by 50 HGV spaces.

The hole, which is one metre in width, first appeared on Boxing Day.

During the peak of last week's border chaos, the old runway - which has not been used for years - took the weight of about 4,000 lorries.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says it sealed off the area as quickly as possible, and staff from the Environment Agency and Kent County Council are now on site.

A DfT spokesman said: “Once we became aware of the issue at Manston we acted quickly to ensure the specific area was safely cordoned off, allowing the rest of the airfield to remain in use.”

Having become a mass testing site and holding area over Christmas, the makeshift lorry park is now only catering for about 25 HGVs.

No trucks are thought to have fallen into the sinkole.

The Thanet airfield is set to be used as a lorry park throughout the first half of 2021 in the event of border-crossing problems post-Brexit.

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