At least four people were killed after a strong wind storm hit Russia’s fifth most-populous region, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday, citing the regional prosecutor’s office.
Wind gusts reached up to 28 meters per second in the Sverdlovsk region Monday, toppling trees and causing widespread blackouts that left 130,000 residents without power. Footage from Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, showed roofs being torn off buildings, antenna towers being pushed over and other structures falling.
The victims included a worker who fell from a construction crane, a man who was struck by a metal gate, a woman killed by a falling tree branch and a man who was hit by a roof that fell off a building, TASS cited regional prosecutors as saying.
About 300 rescue workers have been deployed to damaged sites in the Sverdlovsk region and continued to work through Tuesday, TASS cited the regional emergencies ministry as saying.
Russian scientists have predicted a higher-than-normal number of severe wind storms in central Russia and Siberia this year, linking the phenomenon to global climate change.