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WEATHER

Two killed as tornado hits Italian tourist island

A tornado hit the Sicilian island of Pantelleria on Friday, killing two people and seriously injuring four others, the civil protection agency said.

Two killed as tornado hits Italian tourist island
A jeep overturned by the tornado which hit the island of Pantelleria on Friday evening. Photo: Protezione Civile

The whirlwind “hit and overturned six cars”, the agency said in a post on Facebook, with photographs showing one vehicle thrown against a house and another lying battered in a field.

The two dead were an off-duty fireman and an 86-year-old man, both of whom were driving their cars as the winds hit the tiny volcanic outcrop, a tourist hotspot which lies closer to North Africa than Italy.

The wind ripped down a coastal road in seconds, according to media reports. “It was an apocalyptic sight,” an unnamed paramedic at the scene told ANSA news agency.

A hospital helicopter from nearby Lampedusa island was ready to provide assistance once the weather improved, it said.

According to the Civil Protection Agency, nine others were injured, four of whom remain in critical condition.

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WEATHER

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

Blizzards in Denmark this week have resulted in the greatest depth of snow measured in the country for 13 years.

Denmark records deepest snow level for 13 years

A half-metre of snow, measured at Hald near East Jutland town Randers, is the deepest to have occurred in Denmark since January 2011, national meteorological agency DMI said.

The measurement was taken by the weather agency at 8am on Thursday.

Around 20-30 centimetres of snow was on the ground across most of northern and eastern Jutland by Thursday, as blizzards peaked resulting in significant disruptions to traffic and transport.

A much greater volume of snow fell in 2011, however, when over 100 centimetres fell on Baltic Sea island Bornholm during a post-Christmas blizzard, which saw as much as 135 centimetres on Bornholm at the end of December 2010.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s January storms could be fourth extreme weather event in three months

With snowfall at its heaviest for over a decade, Wednesday saw a new rainfall record. The 59 millimetres which fell at Svendborg on the island of Funen was the most for a January day in Denmark since 1886. Some 9 weather stations across Funen and Bornholm measured over 50cm of rain.

DMI said that the severe weather now looks to have peaked.

“We do not expect any more weather records to be set in the next 24 hours. But we are looking at some very cold upcoming days,” DMI meteorologist and press spokesperson Herdis Damberg told news wire Ritzau.

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