One person died on Monday and nine were injured in the coastal town of Zierikzee, in the southwest of the Netherlands, due to a tornado.
The phenomenon, the first of its kind to cause fatalities in three decades, occurred at the beginning of the tourist season in that city and left a trail of destruction.with roofs ripped off houses and felled trees.
“One person died”, Zeeland provincial officials said. One injured person was taken to hospital, while eight were treated by paramedics at the scene, they added.
“The damage is considerable in several streets of Zierikzee. In addition to the tiles and fallen trees, the roofs of four houses were ripped off,” they said.
The police indicated that the fatal victim was a 73-year-old tourist.coming from Wassenaar, a city near The Hague.
Zierikzee, located on one of the islands that make up the province of Zealand, has among its tourist attractions a historic port and a 15th-century tower.
The Netherlands, whose flat lands are even above sea level, is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, but the last tornado to cause deaths was in 1992, the Dutch weather agency KNMI said.
“Violent vortices, also known as tornadoes, are rare in our country,” according to the KNMI website.
Source: Observadora
