Tornado hits southern Romania town

A tornado hit Drajna, a small town in southern Romania, on Tuesday afternoon. The extreme phenomenon, which is very rare in Romania, toppled a bus leaving eight people with light injuries. Eyewitnesses filmed the tornado from the A2 highway, which passes near Drajna, and posted the recording on Facebook.

The only tornado officially recorded in Romania in recent years hit Facaeni village in Ialomita county, near the Danube, in August 2002. The tornado damaged over 400 houses and completely destroyed 30. Over 120 hectares of forest were also destroyed and 14 people injured. A woman and her child lost their lives. Winds of 250-300 km/h were recorded on that occasion, according to local Adevarul.ro.

Romania’s Baragan area, east of the capital Bucharest, was under a code orange for storms on Tuesday. Heavy rainfall and strong winds caused disruptions in the power supply in the area. Over 400 households in Calarasi and neighboring villages were left without electricity on Tuesday evening.

Severe weather phenomena were recorded in several areas of the country. Prahova and Buzau counties, north of Bucharest, were hit by a hail storm.

Southern Romania is under a code yellow for storms on May 1.

(Photo source: caption from Facebook video)