PERHAPS this van driver should have known better, turning down Water Street on a rainy afternoon in one of the wettest summers on record.

He came a cropper when he drove through what appeared to be a puddle of rainwater - the front of his vehicle vanished into it.

The road collapsed under the van close to Tesco Extra in the Stockport street.

The van had to be pulled out of the hole by the AA.

Witness Mark Doughty, who took the picture, said: "Water was flowing down the street and it looked as thought the main had burst."