It is the stuff of nightmares, having the earth open up below your feet and then falling into a hole full of rats.
Leonard Shoulders,33, was waiting for a bus in New York City on Saturday (local time) when a sinkhole opened up, plunging him into a swarm of rats.
Surveillance video published by CBS New York shows Shoulders, apparently lighting a cigarette, take a step forward and fall through the sinkhole.
"As he was falling, he scraped his face, broke his arm and broke his leg," his brother Greg White told New York Daily News on Monday.
"He couldn't move, and the rats were crawling all over him. He didn't scream, because he didn't want the rats going into his mouth."
Firefighters took 30 minutes to reach the man and took him to St Barnabas Hospital where he is now recovering.
"He's in the hospital recovering," White said. "It was crazy."
A temporary fence is now up as crews fix the hole where the scene unfolded. The city's Department of Buildings also issued a full vacate order for the five-story building.
