A small tornado has struck a town on Turkey’s Aegean coast, leaving a path of destruction and injuring 16 people, reports said.
The tornado touched down late on Thursday in the resort town of Cesme, some 90 kilometres west of the city of Izmir.
It uprooted trees, blew off roof tiles, swept up cars and knocked down a crane.
At least four boats capsized.
The worst-hit area was a construction site for summer villas where the crane was toppled and a container housing the construction workers overturned.
Sixteen workers were hurt, including one who was taken to hospital with a broken leg, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
“In the space of just 20 seconds there was a great misfortune. We see a very sad picture. Many roofs have been blown off, vehicles lifted up and smashed to the ground. It's unbelievable,” Izmir mayor Tunc Soyer told reporters as he surveyed the damage.
Hortum felaketinin boyutları gün ağarınca ortaya çıktı pic.twitter.com/N2oW7IMCuj
Advertisement— İhlas Haber Ajansı (@ihacomtr) February 12, 2021
“We also thought of these as disasters in Far East countries or Latin America, but it's clear that climate change means these natural disasters are not far from us,” he added.
The 16 injured people were taken to hospital, including nine hurt when a crane fell on workers at a construction site in the port area of Alacati, deputy interior minister Ismail Catakli said on Twitter.
Powerful winds and hail also caused damage in the nearby town of Urla, destroying hundreds of commercial greenhouses.
