Storms, tornado leave 78 dead

Nearly 500 injured as extreme weather hits Jiangsu province

Villagers survey the rubble of a collapsed house after a tornado struck Funing in Jiangsu province on Thursday. Provided to China Daily

Seventy-eight people died and about 500 were injured in disasters caused by extreme weather conditions, including a tornado, in Jiangsu province on Thursday.

Buildings collapsed as thunder, lightning, rainstorms, hailstorms and the tornado struck counties and villages in the city of Yancheng at about 2:30 pm.

By the evening, 78 people were reported dead, but the number of injured remained unclear.

Qiao Zonghua, a media official at the Yancheng government, said the tornado struck densely populated areas, adding that the city had never witnessed such a disaster or severe weather conditions.

A villager surnamed Zhang told China News Service he was driving on a country road when he saw a tree collapse. He realized something was wrong, got out of his vehicle and moved several meters away.

He then saw his car sucked in by the tornado and thrown into the air before it landed in a creek.

Another villager, surnamed Li, who crawled out of her collapsed house told China News Service she had been outside when the sky suddenly darkened.

She was scared and found a place to hide, where she heard roaring winds and heavy rain outside that flattened her home.

Local meteorological authorities warned that heavy rain would continue to affect most parts of the city for the next six hours and told people to take every precaution.