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UPDATE: Three dead, 12 hurt as strong winds lash Poland

11.02.2020 11:30
Three people have been reported dead and 12 others injured as strong winds battered parts of Poland at the start of this week, snapping trees and damaging roofs.
Firefighters remove a fallen tree in the village of Hureczko, in Polands southeastern Podkarpacie region.
Firefighters remove a fallen tree in the village of Hureczko, in Poland's southeastern Podkarpacie region.Photo: PAP/Darek Delmanowicz

Firefighters said they were called out more than 4,800 times on Sunday and Monday to deal with the aftermath of powerful winds in various regions across the country.

The gales, part of a deep area of low pressure called Storm Ciara, disrupted power supplies and destroyed the roofs of almost 900 buildings nationwide, including more than 600 homes, Paweł Frątczak, a spokesman for the State Fire Service, said on Tuesday morning.

Firefighters were called to remove thousands of fallen trees from roads and railroad tracks, Frątczak said.

A 52-year-old woman and her two daughters, aged 15 and 21, have been killed and a 16-year-old related to them suffered injuries after high winds blew the roof off a ski rental shop in the southern mountain resort of Bukowina Tatrzańska, near the border with Slovakia, on Monday.

Rescuers at the scene of the incident in Bukowina Tatrzańska, southern Poland, on Monday. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Momot Rescuers at the scene of the incident in Bukowina Tatrzańska, southern Poland, on Monday. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Momot

In other incidents, a driver was hurt after he lost control of his vehicle while trying to avoid a collapsed tree in the southwest of the country, according to a previous report by Poland’s PAP news agency.

Another injured person was a woman whose car slammed into a fallen tree while she was travelling on a road west of the central city of Łódź, the Polish state news agency has reported.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, IAR