IT'S one traffic hazard you don't expect when you're nipping down to the shops - a gaping crater in the middle of the road.

Cars and buses were forced to screech to a halt when the hole - measuring eight feet by six feet and at least six-feet deep - suddenly appeared on Barlow Moor Road in Didsbury.

Footage filmed from an office window by Graeme Barry shows the moment the road collapsed.

Graeme, 25, and colleagues at Envantage energy consultants looked out of the window when they heard bangs as cars grounded out on a step forming in the road.

"I had gone back to my seat and then my boss said: 'There's a hole now' so I went into another office and started filming. It dropped through as I was recording."

Binman Paul Diment, 24, from Didsbury, said: "It was just a small hole at first but every time a car went over it sagged more and more.

"Then the whole lot just collapsed. It just gave way - we couldn't believe it. We were waving our arms to stop traffic".

Amazingly, there was no serious damage to vehicles or any injuries. A large crowed of onlookers gathered and stood in the road to warn approaching motorists.

Barlow Moor Road was closed between Wilmslow Road and Palatine Road with diversions put in place between Palatine Road, Lapwing Lane and Wilmslow Road.

Another eyewitness said: "I saw two men waving their arms and all the cars coming to a stop as I was driving down the road. When I looked out of my car window the tarmac was giving way.

"By the time I got out of the car there was just this huge hole where the surface had caved in and the tarmac around it was cracked."

Chris Barber, Manchester council's head of highway services, said: "Engineers from the council and United Utilities have visited the site but further investigation is needed.

"In the past holes of this size have been caused by a combination of a sewer collapse and burst water mains."

A police official said: "We received a report from a business on Barlow Moor Road that a large hole had appeared."

Hole halts traffic