“Nobody here in La Chaux-de-Fonds had experienced such a phenomenon.” This Monday, this Swiss town in the canton of Neuchâtel near the French border was swept by a violent storm, killing one person while “fifteen injured” were being cared for by emergency services.
According to the cantonal police of Neuchâtel, the victim, aged “around fifty”, was killed by “a falling construction crane”. Vital forecasts for the injured persons “do not seem to be in play,” he said in a press release.
“It was chaos”
Extremely brief, the storm lasted only a few minutes but caused considerable damage. With BFMTV, town resident Alan Marmee recounts the violence of the meteorological event.
“All of a sudden I heard rain, strong winds. I looked outside my house, everything happened in a matter of minutes, everything was very fast, there was complete chaos outside, everything was flying in all directions,” he recalls.
According to the Swiss Meteorological Services, it was “a possible tornado associated with a rapidly developing storm cell along Jura” that affected the city. The Swiss Meteorological Institute details, “A gust of 217 km/h was recorded by our station at the airport of La Chaux-de-Fonds.”
a lot of damage
Rescue and clean-up operations continued throughout the day on Monday. Police have called on the population not to put themselves at risk, in particular not to be at risk of falling tiles or trees, and not to venture into the woods in the area.
Vehicles were damaged or completely destroyed, roofs were torn off, street furniture was blown over and trees were uprooted. The rail network and bus connections were also affected.
Before reaching Switzerland, the storm affected the eastern part of France, and especially the Doubs department, on Monday morning. The prefecture told AFP that the city of Montlebon was the most affected.
The roofs of “about fifteen houses” were damaged, along with the town hall, church and school buildings. According to the same source, no injuries can be ruled out at the moment.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
Video – At least two killed by storm Pauli in the Netherlands and Germany