AN RUSSIAN BOY has died after falling through an ‘urban sinkhole’ which opened up beneath him while out with his mother yesterday.

The child and his mother, 26, were walking down a side street in the Russian city of Bryansk when the ground collapsed beneath them in a hole measuring about five feet in diameter.

Officials told Russia Today that the hole had emerged as a result of a burst drainpipe, which had pushed so much water through the ground that it became unstable and sank when the mother and child walked over it.

An official said that the woman had escaped sinking into the hole after grabbing onto the pavement, where she was rescued by her husband, a traffic policeman.

He could not save the boy, however, who was flung from his pram and fell into the sinkhole, leaving only small pieces of clothing.

He was found late this afternoon, the BBC said, having been carried 6km away from the spot in which he went missing.

RT said a case of criminal manslaughter and professional neglect had been brought against the city council, where an official admitted that the city’s infrastructure needed a major overhaul.

Slideshow: Huge sinkhole opens suddenly in German town