BRASILIA: A tornado killed at least five people and injured more than 400 as it destroyed most of a town in southern Brazil, authorities said Saturday.
The twister on Friday overturned cars and damaged homes in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Parana state, the local weather service reported.
It killed five people and injured 432, the Parana state government said. Two others are missing but this number could rise, it said.
Winds in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, population 14,000, reached between 180 and 250 kilometers per hour (110 and 155 miles per hour), Parana’s environmental technology and monitoring agency said.
Civil Defense officials said 80 percent of the town is now destroyed. Images on social media show homes razed by the violent weather.
“It is a war scene,” Fernando Schunig, head of the Parana Civil Defense agency, told the news outlet G1.
He said the likelihood of more fatalities is high because the twister hit right in the center of the town.
“When these events hit an urban area, the damage is major. It is very lethal,” Schunig said.
The governor of Parana, Ratinho Junior, said on X that “security forces are on alert, mobilized and monitoring the cities affected by the severe storms.”
An alert for dangerous storms was in effect for all of Parana as well as the southern states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, according to weather authorities.
Tornado kills five, injures more than 400 in Brazil
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Tornado kills five, injures more than 400 in Brazil
- It killed five people and injured 432, the Parana state government said
- Winds in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, population 14,000, reached between 180 and 250 kilometers per hour
Lithuania to declare ‘emergency situation’ over Belarus balloons: PM
- “We are currently preparing the legal basis and documents,” Ruginiene told reporters
- “We do not rule out going further,” Ruginiene added. Declaring a state of emergency is a possible stronger step
VILNIUS: Lithuania’s Prime Minister announced on Friday that the country will declare a national “emergency situation” over the influx of smuggler’s balloons launched from Belarus.
“We are currently preparing the legal basis and documents,” Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene told reporters, calling the emergency declaration “the best course of action at this time.”
The ‘emergency situation’ enables the government and local authorities to dedicate extra resources to combatting the balloons.
“We do not rule out going further,” Ruginiene added. Declaring a state of emergency is a possible stronger step.
As a result of balloon incursions, Lithuania’s two largest airports, in Vilnius and Kaunas, have on several occasions been forced to halt operations.
Lithuanian officials claim that the balloons, which fly up to 10 kilometers (six miles) high, are deliberately being launched into the airport’s flight paths, and constitute an attack on its civil aviation.
Though the balloons, which contain cigarettes, have long been used by smugglers, they have only in the last few months prompted airport closures.
The Baltic state, a member of NATO and the European Union, has long accused Belarus, a close ally of Putin’s Russia, of organizing “hybrid warfare.”
The activity, which amplified in October, caused Lithuania to close its two border crossings with Belarus at the end of the month.
Belarus then prevented Lithuanian trucks from driving on its roads and barred them from leaving the country without first paying a fee, which Vilnius decried as “being held hostage” by Belarus.
Thousands of Lithuanian lorries remain stuck in Belarus, with Minsk calling for consultations with the Lithuanian foreign ministry.
Lithuania has instead called for harsher sanctions on Belarus.
