A female motorcyclist sustained serious injuries when she and her bike fell through a cable duct manhole, after she crashed her bike into an unlit steel barrier on a road in Mae Sot district of Tak province Sunday night.

It took emergency workers about 15 minutes to pull the victim out of the two-metre deep duct on Intharasiri Road, in front of Aranyakhet Temple.

While workers were busy trying to pull the 18-year-old and her bike out of the hole, others directed traffic to prevent passing vehicles from also falling into the duct in the dark.

Causing traffic congestion in the area, several cable ducts have been dug along a 1.6 kilometre stretch of Intharasiri Road, to carry communications and other cabling.

There are no illuminated signs along the steel barriers to warn road users of the exposed ducts.