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Five dead as gales batter Poland

02.04.2024 10:30
Five people were killed and several others injured after severe winds hit Poland during the Easter holidays, snapping trees, damaging roofs and disrupting power supplies, authorities said on Tuesday morning.
A 23-year-old woman died when a car in which she was travelling was crushed by a falling tree in the southern Polish mountain resort of Zakopane on Easter Monday.
A 23-year-old woman died when a car in which she was travelling was crushed by a falling tree in the southern Polish mountain resort of Zakopane on Easter Monday.Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Momot

Firefighters said they had been called out more than 730 times on Easter Monday to deal with the aftermath of gales in the southern parts of the country.

Powerful winds wreaked havoc in the southern Małopolskie region, which includes the historic city of Kraków, Karol Kierzkowski, a spokesman for the State Fire Service, told the media.

In the popular mountain resort of Zakopane and surrounding areas, the gales destroyed the roofs of more than 80 buildings, Kierzkowski said.

The winds also left a trail of destruction in the neighbouring province of Śląskie, according to officials.

Many homes were left without electricity after power lines were damaged in the country's south, the Government Centre for Security (RCB) reported.

A 23-year-old woman lost her life in Zakopane after a falling tree crushed the car she was travelling in.

In another incident caused by the extreme weather in the area, a 9-year-old boy died and two women were injured after a tree fell on a group of people leaving a church on Easter Monday, local police said.

In the nearby spa town of Rabka-Zdrój, a six-year-old girl and two women were fatally crushed by a falling tree branch, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

Police said they were investigating the incidents.

(gs)

Source: IAR, PAP, tvn24.pl