A tornado in Sicily overturned cars and seriously injured people
Kyiv • UNN
A tornado destroyed a house and damaged a school in Marsala and neighboring towns. A married couple were hospitalized in serious condition; the authorities will allocate funds.
On Friday, vehicles were overturned and two people sustained serious injuries as a tornado swept through the Sicilian city of Marsala and neighboring settlements. Experts called the event almost unprecedented for the Mediterranean island, UNN reports, citing Reuters.
The storm caused panic among local residents: the tornado destroyed a house and also damaged a school and other buildings in Marsala and the neighboring towns of Petrosino and Mazara del Vallo.
"It was almost like an American tornado; nothing so destructive has been seen here in the memory of the current generation," Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily's Civil Protection Service, told Reuters.
As early as the beginning of September, the agency warned that the hot summer had caused a great deal of heat to accumulate, which could trigger extreme weather events in the autumn.
"This once again highlights the problem of extreme weather events that have become characteristic of recent years due to the climate crisis," Cocina said.
Video released by local media shows a school in Marsala with shattered windows and a partially collapsed roof, as well as passenger cars and trucks overturned onto their sides and power-line poles blown down by the wind.
A couple caught at the epicenter of the storm while traveling by car was hospitalized in serious condition.
The president of the Sicily region, Renato Schifani, promised to allocate special funds to address the consequences of the emergency; a warning about possible extreme weather events also remains in effect for Saturday, as rains and storms continue to hit the island.