A YORK woman has spoken of her shock at falling down a manhole while on a badly lit street in York.

Siobhan Taylor, 21, was walking along Alcuin Avenue on her way to Tang Hall Working Men’s Club on Friday night when one of her legs plunged into the uncovered manhole.

She managed to break her fall with her hands, avoiding a three-metre drop into a sewage pipe, but has suffered serious bruising and a cut to her leg.

Yorkshire Water said they found the smashed pieces of the manhole cover in the bottom of the chamber, suggesting it had possibly been run over by a heavy vehicle.

Siobhan, of Etty Avenue, said: “The street is completely black at night time. The light near the manhole was covered by trees. I was walking along and I went straight down. My leg went right down it but I managed to stop myself going right down with my hands.

“I don’t know how I didn’t snap my leg. If it was an older person it could have killed them if they went straight down it.”

After climbing out of the manhole, Siobhan said she was able to hobble to the club where a friend took her home.

She later went to hospital to be checked over.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: “We’re very sorry to hear about the accident in Alcuin Avenue last Friday night. We are grateful to York City Council, who took steps to make the area safe, and informed us about this on Monday morning.

“We are sending a team to the site today to ascertain which of our assets is involved and what remedial action is needed.”

In February, The Press reported how Yorkshire Water was tackling thieves who target its manhole covers by launching new ones made of fibre-glass.

The company says thieves are costing it hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, as well as putting lives at risk.