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Tornado in Indonesia injures 35, damages hundreds of homes

by Reuters
Thursday, 23 November 2017 10:50 GMT

Residents survey the damage to homes following a tornado in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia November 23, 2017. Antara Foto/Umarul Faruq/via REUTERS

Image Caption and Rights Information

The tornado carved a path of destruction in the Sidoarjo area, lasting about five minutes

(Corrects day in paragraph 1 to Wednesday, not Thursday)

JAKARTA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - A tornado ripped through a densely populated area in Indonesia's East Java province on Wednesday, injuring 35 people and damaging more than 600 homes, the head of the local disaster mitigation official said.

The tornado, with wind speeds of 70 km per hour (45 miles per hour), carved a path of destruction in the Sidoarjo area, lasting about five minutes, Dwidjo Prawito of Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said by telephone.

A video posted on social media showed part of a roof being torn off a building as debris was hurled high into the air. Sidoarjo is south of Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya.

Around 100 people were evacuated to an elementary school, while others had left to stay with family members, said Prawito.

In February, 166 houses were reported damaged when another tornado struck several villages in the same area. ($1 = 13,510.0000 rupiah) (Reporting by Jessica Damiana; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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