Girl falls through pavement

A young girl suddenly fell into a 20ft pit after the pavement she was walking on collapsed in China.

The pavement caved in under the teenager's weight, in the northern city of Xi'an.

The dramatic incident was caught on CCTV cameras - as was her rescue by a passing taxi driver .

He jumped out of his cab and shouted down the hole. Getting no response, he climbed down after her.

"I called out to her but she didn't respond. After I shook her a little, she came to," said cabbie Wang Wei.

"The dirt kept showering down on us and the kid couldn't stop crying," he added.

Underground water had eroded the ground under the road and caused a cavity under the pavement.

The ground in the pit continued to shift while the cab driver and the girl were still in it, making it impossible for them to climb out until firefighters lowered a ladder.