The sinkhole appeared in Yashio city in Saitama prefecture, near the capital Tokyo, swallowing a truck.

Rescue efforts have been hampered by road collapses, and officials have ordered scores of households in the area to evacuate their homes.

The 74-year-old driver was last heard responding to rescuers on Tuesday afternoon, according to local media.

While emergency crews managed to remove the truck bed from the pool-sized sinkhole, the driver’s cabin remains buried under soil and debris.

The hole measuring about 10m (33ft) wide and 5m deep first appeared on Tuesday morning at a road junction.

It is believed to have been caused by an underground sewage pipe rupturing.

Officials said that as waste water from the damaged pipe flooded the hole, it caused a second sinkhole to appear on Thursday.

Video footage showed a utility pole and a restaurant signboard falling in that collapse.

The road then collapsed further, merging the two sinkholes together to become a 20m-wide crater, further complicating the rescue operation.

The massive sinkhole also contains a gas pipeline, prompting fears of a potential leak. Officials have issued evacuation orders for 200 households in the surrounding area.

They have also urged residents in and around the city to use less water.

Sinkholes are increasingly common in Japanese cities, as many have ageing sewage pipeline infrastructure.

In 2016, a giant sinkhole in Fukuoka swallowed a five-lane street in Fukuoka, disrupting power, water and transport. No serious injuries were reported.

Last August, a search for a woman who disappeared into a pavement sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre was called off after a week.

Authorities deemed it “too risky” to continue deploying divers into the underground sewer network, which had strong currents and hard debris.

Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing by family members after she went out to search for the cat on Monday night.

Officials who arrived first to the scene nearly fell into the same hole, which they say is connected to an abandoned coal mine.

Microphones and cameras have been lowered into the hole, but Mrs Pollard has yet to be found. Officials say their cameras spotted what appeared to be a shoe.

Mrs Pollard’s car was found parked behind a restaurant in the town of Marguerite, 40 miles (65km) east of Pittsburgh, early Tuesday morning.

Her five-year-old granddaughter was inside the car, officials said, adding that the girl was cold but not hurt.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Stephen Limani told reporters that the hole is about the size of a city manhole cover.

“It was about the size of manhole cover but the pocket underneath is significantly larger, and trying to send cameras down there, we determined it’s roughly about 30ft before you see a lot of debris,” Mr Limani said.

Officials believe that the sinkhole opened up as Mrs Pollard was standing on top of it while looking for her cat named Pepper. They hope that she is sheltering in an underground “void”.

“The sinkhole, it appears that it was most likely created during the time, unfortunately, that Mrs Pollard was walking around,” Mr Limani said.

“We don’t see any evidence of any time where that hole would have been there prior to deciding to walk around and look for her cat.”

More than 100 people were assisting in the rescue on Wednesday, he added. Mining experts from the state government are also on the scene, and officials have dug an additional hole in order to be able to access the site, which they fear is unstable.

Temperatures, which have been below freezing the last several days, are much warmer inside the hole than they are at the surface. Authorities have also not detected any dangerous gases that are sometimes found in abandoned mines.

Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief John Bacha told reporters that the shoe likely found does not appear to date back to when the mine was still operational.

“It’s a modern shoe – not something you’d find in a coal mine in Marguerite in 1940,” he said, according to NBC News.