A MASSIVE tornado, hailstorm and torrential rain has killed at least 98 people and injured 800 after tearing through eastern China.
The storm, which flattened power lines, overturned cars and ripped roofs off houses in Jiangsu province, struck at mid-afternoon yesterday, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
Winds reached 78 mph and battered several townships in Funing county, the official Xinhua news agency said.
“I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows,” Funing resident Xie Litian, 62, told Xinhua.
“I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away.”
When the storm subsided and Xie escaped, all the neighbouring houses were gone. “It was like the end of the world,” Xie said.
The death toll stood at 98, with 800 people injured, state-run China National Radio said on its website on Friday.
