The machine was carrying out repair work on Huddersfield Road in Newhey, Rochdale, when the street buckled beneath it just before 4.30pm.

The Manchester Evening News reported that construction workers had been drilling to insert steel rods into the road – to strengthen it while they repaired a dry stone wall at its edge.

But the wall collapsed, taking the side of the road with it and the machine sunk into the crater.

The collapse meant Huddersfield Road was closed at its junction with Ogden Lane – between Newhey and Denshaw.

Police were quickly on the scene diverting traffic and the incident caused jams back to the M62 at junction 21.

No one was injured in the collapse.