THREE people are now understood to have fallen down a manhole in a badly-lit York street, within a day of each other.

Last week, The Press reported how Siobhan Taylor, 21, had been walking along Alcuin Avenue on her way to Tang Hall Working Men’s Club 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 suffered serious bruising and a cut to her leg.

Now, Stuart Lloyd, 41, has told of how he fell down the same hole just half-an-hour later on Friday, March 9. He said when he later contacted City of York Council, he was told a third person had reported going into the manhole on March 10.

Mr Lloyd said he had been walking along Alcuin Avenue having bought fish and chips in Hull Road before he fell into the hole, which was partially covered by a sign.

He said: “All of a sudden I was watching a dog eat my fish and chips because I had fallen down the hole.

“Luckily, my angle stopped me going all the way down it. I went in it to my head height and pulled myself out.

“I wasn’t surprised to learn other people had fallen down it because the street was pitch black.”

Mr Lloyd said the fall had caused him to cut his leg as well as damaging his clothes and breaking his camera.

City of York Council temporarily covered the hole before Yorkshire Water, which is responsible for the manhole, was able to fix it.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: “We’re very sad to hear that, after what would appear to be a mindless act of vandalism deprived one of our manholes of a cover, a number of people sustained injuries as a result of there being no cover, before we were notified of the issue and able to replace the broken cover.

“Such incidents clearly demonstrate the terrible consequences of people illegally removing and breaking our covers and as such we’d like to thank the person who contacted us about the issue and brought it to our attention, enabling us to carry out an emergency repair and ensure there were no further injuries.

“Whilst we do our best to monitor the thousands of covers we own, we’d urge local residents to act as an extra pair of eyes and ears on the ground and report any issues of abuse to us on 0845 1 24 24 24.”