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Two killed as tornado hits Italian tourist island

The Local/AFP (news@thelocal.it)
The Local/AFP ([email protected])
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

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

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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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