SHANGHAI, Apr 26 --A SUDDEN road collapse yesterday left a huge hole in Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi Province, the Jiangnan City Daily reported today. No casualties were reported.

The cave-in happened around 11:15am yesterday on Shunwai Road. The hole is estimated to cover 72 square meters and is seven meters deep.

"I was scared when I saw the road sinking and felt the ground shake," a witness said who was holding a baby at the roadside when the subsidence occurred.

An official of the local planning body said there was a drainage system under the collapsed section of the road, with a layer of cables and optical fiber cables above the system and a one-meter deep layer of sand between the surface and the cables.

The city had excavated the road to clean the sewer in 2005 and paved it with bitumen, the official said.

The cables were not damaged and the exact cause of the subsidence is under investigation.

Traffic police had to halt all traffic on the road, forcing vehicles to find a detour.