A tornado in Nancai township in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on Tuesday caused one death, three injuries, and damage to 52 houses, according to China Central Television.
Currently, all the injured have been taken to hospital, and none of the cases are critical. According to experts, the tornado was classified at the EF2 level. The damaged neighborhoods are being cleared up, and efforts are underway to assess the extent of the damage, said the report.
Wang Xiaohua, chief forecaster of the Jiangsu provincial meteorological observatory, said that the entire Huaibei area had been hit by a relatively wide range of severe weather since the afternoon on Tuesday. A tornado occurred in some parts of Suqian, from 5 pm to 6 pm, with the preliminary judgment that it reached EF2 level intensity, according to a Jiangsu local media report.
An EF2-level tornado is estimated to have a speed of 178 to 217 kilometers per hour and usually causes considerable damage.
Based on videos that have gone viral online, the tornado tore the roofs off buildings in some areas.
