© Via Twitter@SgtAngelaFreud

A large sinkhole has appeared in the middle of a residential street in Greater Manchester with police urging motorists in the area to "give the road a miss".The six-metre wide hole appeared at around 12.30am in Heywood Road, Prestwich, believed to have been caused by a collapsed sewer.Residents were woken in the middle of the night by a loud 'banging' sound, the Manchester Evening News reports.A resident named George, who did not give his surname, told the newspaper it was "a bit scary"Greater Manchester Police officers covering the Whitefield area also tweeted for motorists in the area to give the road a "miss for the next week or so. Big sinkhole one of our night sgts is looking into".A spokesman for United Utilities said the road is "likely to be closed for a few weeks as engineers will need to excavate around it. It was reported to us in the early hours by the police," they said in a statement."At this stage we are not sure what has happened and whether the road has collapsed or if it's linked to a sewer. There has been some recent tarmacing on the road we believe."The road has been closed for around half a mile and local traffic diversions are in place."Local residents were asked to move their cars away from the area by police last night."A fire service spokesman told the Bury Times that residents reported hearingAnother large hole reported to be 40ft deep appeared on a busy Manchester road after heavy rainfall last year.Earlier this year, a dog was pulled out alive from a sinkhole in Missouri.