A farmer has been pulled to safety from a 60ft (18m) sinkhole which "swallowed" him and the quad bike he was riding. The ground opened up as he rode across a field at Bowesfield Farm in Stank, south Cumbria, on Thursday. The man, in his seventies, was then airlifted to hospital for treatment to chest and back injuries. "The ground just fell away with the weight of the bike on that particular spot and he was swallowed up into the sinkhole", he said.