Restaurant’s parking lot caves in swallowing 12 cars

The gaping hole was reported to have swallowed 12 cars

Imagine sitting down at a restaurant to eat with your car properly parked outside, only to discover later that the car is no more available to take home! Such is the story of customers at a Mississippi restaurant whose parking lot caved in, swallowing 12 cars and leaving experts to unravel the cause of the weekend collapse. Emergency crews were called to the IHOP restaurant in Meridian and found a section of parking lot about 35 feet wide and 400 feet long had collapsed. Cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles had dropped into the gash in the earth, which appeared to be about 15 feet deep.
ore pictures after the cut

 No one was reported injured when the pavement gave way though the Meridian Public Safety Director Buck Roberts told The Meridian Star that the collapse Saturday night was not the result of a sinkhole, which is generally caused when an underground water aquifer dries and leaves a void in the ground.
"You can call it what you want, a cave-in or whatever, but it is not a sinkhole," Roberts said.
"One of the employees ran over to the window and yells 'Earthquake,'" said Noah Mathis, who was in the restaurant when it happened. "Everyone went into a panic."

Emergency personnel said an underground drain pipe collapsed, but it was not clear why. Officials say the investigation has not ruled out the possibility that construction at the newly opened IHOP played a contributing factor.