The HS2 has spoken out after a ‘giant’ sinkhole opened up on a Buckinghamshire field.

The Environment Agency is investigating the 6m (20ft) sinkhole, which appeared on Saturday May 13 above the high-speed railway’s tunnelling works adjacent to the Shardeloes Lake in Amersham.

An environmental campaigner from Bucks has said he feared for a decade a sinkhole like this would appear if HS2 tunnels into the chalk and flint ground near an aquifer.

Now a spokesperson for HS2 Ltd has commented the sinkhole, saying that “tunnelling operations are ongoing and we are in discussion with the landowners and occupiers about repairing the ground.

READ MORE: Video of Amersham sinkhole above HS2 tunnelling works

“This has to be carefully planned in order to keep everyone safe and stabilise the area for the long term.

“We have been engaging with all key stakeholders including Buckinghamshire Council, Affinity Water and the Environment Agency, throughout the excavation of the Chiltern tunnels and we will keep them updated as we go forward.”

As part of the controversial tunnelling works, two 170m long boring machines are currently progressing underneath the Chiltern Hills to build the HS2 project’s longest, 10-mile-long Chiltern Tunnel.