Elizabeth Pollard: Grandmother disappears after sinkhole opens up beneath her in Pennsylvania

Rescue crews are desperately trying to locate a woman who reportedly disappeared after the ground she was standing on opened up and fell into a sinkhole.

The grandmother from Pennsylvania was wandering the streets looking for a lost cat when the ground collapsed beneath her and she was swept away by water inside the cavern.

Authorities were contacted by the family of Elizabeth Pollard, 64, who was out looking for her cat when the tragic incident played out in a small local village.

Emergency services lowered a pole camera with a listening device into the hole in Marguerite but detected nothing. A second camera lowered into the hole and showed what appeared to be a shoe.

At about 7pm on Tuesday, Ms Pollard was out looking for her cat, Pepper, and police say they found Pollard’s car parked near Monday’s Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 65km east of Pittsburgh.

Ms Pollard’s five-year-old granddaughter was found safe inside the car.

The manhole-sized opening had not been seen by hunters and restaurant workers who were in the area in the hours before Pollard’s disappearance, leading rescuers to speculate the sinkhole was new.

Authorities used an excavator to dig in the area, where temperatures dropped to below-freezing overnight.

“We are pretty confident we are in the right place. We’re hoping there is still a void she could be in,” Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Company Chief John Bacha said.

Trooper Steve Limani said the shoe was about 9m below the surface.

“It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” said local police trooper Mr Limani.

“The young girl nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back,” Mr Limani said.

Police said sinkholes were not uncommon because of subsidence from coal mining activity in the area.