This is the heart-stopping moment a huge sinkhole swallowed up a father and his son on a motorcycle in Thailand.

CCTV footage shows the ground collapsing while the pair were driving along the Chaeng Watthana Road in Nonthaburi province next to Bangkok on April 6.

The dad and his child fell into the sinkhole as the earth beneath them gave way.

Brave locals rushed over, stepping over slabs of broken asphalt to drag them to safety as water began to fill the subsided section of the road.

Resident Grace Nicha, who runs a shop with CCTV cameras that also captured the sinkhole, said she was worried her home could be next.

She said: 'If the road falls, it could also cause my property to collapse. I have my shop and my home in the same building. Now I am worried it is not safe.'

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) has blamed the collapse on an underground electric cable project near the Chao Phraya River.

Officials said the sand layer on which the project was laid out had moved excessively due to the river currents.

The MEA said the road is expected to be repaired and reopened on Tuesday, April 9.

A council spokesman said: 'The sinkhole was not our responsibility. The road is maintained regularly but we could not do anything to prevent this.'

Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in Asia, Thailand suffers from chronic underinvestment in its roads and pavements, contributing to its poor road safety levels. Only a handful of African countries are worse.

Thailand has one of the world's worst road safety records. Ministers have set the goal of reducing fatalities from 32.7 deaths per 100,000 people to 12 per 100,000 people by the year 2027.

However, a lack of road safety education in schools along with notoriously easy driving tests, police failures to enforce road laws, and chronic under-investment in infrastructure, all appear to hamper the efforts.