Strong winds wreak havoc across Poland

A tornado damaged up to 40 buildings in a town in Wielkopolskie province on Thursday morning, the fire brigade has reported, while in Krakow two construction workers were killed and two others wounded when strong winds felled a crane.

The tornado hit Dobrzyca as high winds across Poland from Wednesday to Thursday caused structural damage to almost 200 homes and other buildings.

The National Fire Brigade described the destruction in Dobrzyca as "really massive" and said that firefighters were trying to take control of the situation.

A local Fire Brigade spokesperson from Pleszew County, where Dobrzyca lies, said 50 homes had been damaged county-wide by the tornado, which struck at around 5 a.m.

"But also in the (central) Lodzkie and Mazowieckie provinces, there are several, over a dozen, damaged buildings," the national spokesperson added. "However, the most difficult situation is in Pleszew County in the Wielkopolskie province."

Brigadier Karol Kierzkowski from the National Fire Brigade said that high winds had damaged buildings in almost every county, with the worst damage suffered in the west of the country.

with information from www.thefirstnews.com