MARSALA, Italy — A powerful tornado swept through the Sicilian city of Marsala and neighbouring towns on Friday, overturning vehicles, destroying a house and seriously injuring two people, in what experts called an almost unprecedented event for the Mediterranean island.
The whirlwind tore through Marsala on Sicily’s western coast and the nearby towns of Petrosino and Mazara del Vallo, ripping roofs off buildings, shattering windows at a school, flipping cars and trucks on their sides and scattering downed power poles across streets.
FAKTA
- What: A violent tornado struck western Sicily on Friday, October 9, hitting Marsala and the neighbouring towns of Petrosino and Mazara del Vallo.
- Casualties: At least two people were seriously injured — a couple caught in the tornado while driving, taken to hospital in a serious condition.
- Damage: A house destroyed in Marsala, the Alcide De Gasperi school damaged, vehicles overturned, power poles downed, debris across streets.
- Expert verdict: “It was almost like an American tornado, nothing this violent has been seen in living memory,” said Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s Civil Protection agency.
- Aftermath: Italy’s fire service deployed teams from Trapani with reinforcements arriving from Palermo and Agrigento; Sicily’s regional president promised special emergency funds; a weather alert remains in place for Saturday.
Sicily tornado Marsala: cars flipped, school damaged
Videos from local media showed a Marsala school with blown-out windows and a partially collapsed ceiling, while elsewhere in the town cars and trucks lay overturned on their sides. Power poles struck by the winds were strewn across the ground.
The tornado damaged the Alcide De Gasperi school in the Strasatti area of Marsala while lessons were underway, blowing out window frames and scattering debris through classrooms. A middle school in Petrosino was also damaged by the winds, according to Italy’s fire service.
The two seriously injured victims were a couple who were caught in the tornado while driving and were rescued by firefighters and paramedics before being taken to hospital. Their car was among the vehicles thrown about by the winds.
“Nothing this violent has been seen in living memory”
Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s Civil Protection agency, told Reuters the storm was “almost like an American tornado,” adding: “nothing this violent has been seen in living memory.”
Cocina said the agency had warned as early as September that the sweltering summer had led to a buildup of heat that could trigger extreme weather events in autumn. “It once again highlights the issue of extreme weather events, a characteristic of recent years due to the climate crisis,” he said.
The fire service, Vigili del Fuoco, said five firefighter teams from across Trapani province were deployed to Marsala, Petrosino and Mazara del Vallo for rescue operations, with reinforcement teams arriving from the Palermo and Agrigento command centers.
How the Sicily tornado Marsala storm formed
According to Italian meteorological reports, the tornado developed during an intense Mediterranean storm. Waterspouts were observed offshore near Marsala before the destructive winds moved ashore, striking residential neighbourhoods, roads, public buildings and agricultural areas across western Sicily’s Trapani province.
Meteorologists described the event as extraordinary for the region. Violent tornadoes of this kind are extremely rare in Sicily, and weather experts noted that the storm’s intensity — with vehicles lifted and roofs torn from buildings — resembled the powerful twisters more commonly seen on the American plains. The island has been battered by increasingly volatile autumn storms in recent years, which climate scientists link to warmer seas and more unstable atmospheric conditions over the Mediterranean.
Emergency funds and Saturday alert
Sicily’s regional president, Renato Schifani, promised to allocate special funds to address the emergency, and an alert for possible further extreme weather remained in place for Saturday as rains and storms continued to affect the island.
The tornado came amid a volatile autumn weather pattern across the region. Meteorological agencies had issued warnings for strong storms, and officials said emergency assessments of the damage were continuing into the weekend.
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