SEVERN Trent Water say they are not responsible for a sinkhole which appeared in the city.

The sewer pipe underneath the hole, in Brickfields Road, Worcester, was found to be 'absolutely fine' when workers dug down to it.

The hole was filled in with tarmac this morning and the road was reopened at around 12.45pm.

Teams worked overnight to investigate the cause of the hole, which emerged on Wednesday, November 23.

A Severn Trent Water spokesman said: "We’ve now shared this with the council, and can confirm that Severn Trent is not responsible for the pothole.

"We will now be putting the road back to normal today.”

The sinkhole had closed the busy road causing traffic chaos for commuters.

Brickfields Road was closed under the railway bridge near the junction with Astwood Road after the hole, which is approximately two foot wide, opened up on Wednesday night.

Jon Fraser, head of Highways at Worcestershire County Council, said the road has been closed for safety reasons because the hole could be much larger underneath the surface.

Yesterday morning, traffic quickly built up along Astwood Road and Bilford Road, causing gridlock as drivers were diverted away.

A lack of signage on Blackpole Road also meant drivers coming that way were forced to do U-turns if they had wanted to turn right.

James and Lisa Hadley were walking along Brickfields Road yesterday morning.

Mr Hadley said: "It's more like a pothole. It's not like one of those Japanese ones that swallow people up."

Mrs Hadley: "We've walked down from Blackpole retail park and there isn't a single sign.

"It's going to be chaos."

However, Mr Fraser said a sinkhole is not the same as a pothole and is potentially very serious, because it is likely to be larger or longer than it appears.

A sinkhole is usually caused when water eats away at the ground underneath, forming a pit into which the top layer of earth or road may suddenly collapse.

Mr Fraser said: "It's right in the middle of the road.

"There is no way we could leave it open. If a bus went over it it could open up.

"We have shut the road for safety reasons."

Severn Trent spent yesterday afternoon examining the site with CCTV.

A spokesman said: "After our investigation, we’ve noticed there was a slight dip in one of our pipes.

"To be able to confirm if this dip has been caused by the same issue that caused the hole in the road, or if it’s been caused by our pipe, we’re going to dig down and investigate this further.

"Our priority is to do this work so we can find out what’s caused the hole in the road, so repairs can start to be made and everything put back to normal as quickly as possible."

Barriers were first put up around the hole at around 12.30am on Thursday morning after West Mercia Police notified the council and Severn Trent Water first attended at 3.30am.