A terrifying moment was captured on video when a woman in Brazil fell into a manhole after the cover gave way beneath her feet. The incident occurred in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, May 31, just two weeks after a similar tragedy in New York City where a grandmother died from a manhole fall.
The footage shows Fabiana Rosa, 32, walking down a quiet street while looking at her phone after getting off a motorbike taxi. As she stepped onto a covered manhole, the cover flipped up, causing her to plummet into the drainage system below.
The motorbike taxi driver immediately ran back to the scene as passersby rushed to help. Emergency services eventually pulled Rosa to safety. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she recounted her ordeal: "I thought I was going to die, because the water was hitting my chest and the hole was very deep."
Rosa suffered injuries across her body after being struck by the manhole cover during the fall. Local reports indicate that the cover had been incorrectly positioned after two would-be metal thieves allegedly moved it during the night. Security footage from around 2 a.m. reportedly shows two men removing the manhole cover and attempting to reposition it without properly securing it.
