Villagers in Surrey have been forced to evacuate their homes over fears of an explosion after a large and expanding sinkhole appeared in the high street.

On Monday night, a sinkhole appeared on Godstone High Street. By Tuesday afternoon, it had grown to at least 20 metres, which led to water supplies being cut off and a garden being swallowed up.

Surrey county council has declared a major incident and local people have been urged to avoid the area while repair work is being carried out.

Police evacuated a number of properties and a 100-metre cordon was put in place.

The force advised people living in William Way, Godstone, “to get out as quickly as possible” early on Tuesday morning because of fears that exposed cables might cause an explosion.

Residents described the evacuation scenes as “terrifying”, with one person who moved in less than a week ago saying that he had been forced to sleep in his car.

“I don’t know what’s to come from here, no one can give me any info. They said it could be up to a week before we’re back in. I don’t think they know what state the mains gas and electric’s in, so it was a risk of explosion, fire, collapse,” Josh Neame told the BBC.

“My life’s still in boxes, I hadn’t even unpacked from the house move. Not what you wanted on a Monday night.”

Rez Mira and his family left their property in the early hours of Tuesday morning to stay with relatives in Croydon. They were shocked when they returned to find the back garden of their property had been swallowed by the sinkhole.

“We’re just terrified. We have to figure out where to live now. Next week school is going back and we have to find somewhere close by,” he said.

Police confirmed that a few buildings had been evacuated as a precaution, stating that road works were likely to remain in place for a while.

Nicola and Damian Styles, 46 and 44, said they were woken up by police knocking on their door at about half-past midnight on Tuesday, who told them to evacuate their home because there was a risk of a gas explosion.

The couple came back to their home at about midday to pick up some items but later decided to stay at their address.

Asked whether they believe they will have to evacuate again, Styles said: “This is the thing now: we don’t know. And we’re kind of playing it by chance at the moment.

“They said that they’re trying their best but this thing is still eroding away because it’s getting bigger, so …”

SES Water said its engineers were working to fix a burst main water pipe caused by the sinkhole and were distributing bottled water to residents.

A spokesperson for Surrey Highways advised people to avoid the area.