A tornado in the Chinese city of Guangzhou has killed at least five people. Another 33 were injured, Chinese state media reported.
The tornado reportedly hit the Guangdong Province capital in the south of the country at around 3 p.m. Local time (2 a.m. EST) on Saturday, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.
Xinhua further reported extensive damage to more than 100 buildings. State media also published images that appear to show dark skies in the middle of the day, while images shared on social media appeared to show uprooted trees and damaged vehicles.
The Chinese province of Guangdong is the most populous in the country, and is home to almost 130 million people. The province also has thousands of factories and facilities that cater for China’s export sector.
Tornadoes are not an unusual occurrence. In September last year, a tornado killed at least 10 people in Suqian, in the eastern province of Jiangsu. In 2021, more than a dozen people died after two tornadoes hit the country on the same day.
However, reports of severe weather phenomena in China have been mounting in recent years.
Earlier this week, severe flooding caused by torrential rains in Guangdong left at least four people dead, although the actual number of casualties could be much higher. The flooding has reportedly been the worst the province experienced in seven decades.
Last year, the heaviest rain since records began 140 years ago flooded cities in the Pearl River Delta.
According to some accounts, the worsening human cost of extreme weather phenomena in China, which has seen destructive land- or mudslides and severe drought or flooding, could be an indicator of a dangerous situation unfolding. China, which is one of the world’s greatest environmental disrupters, could be experiencing the consequences of decades-long poorly planned environmental re-engineering and pollution.
Others have said that the worsening impact of extreme weather events on the Chinese people could be a result of climate change and dam mismanagement. Some referenced traditional Chinese cultural beliefs about divine retribution, which considered natural disasters, such as uncharacteristic flooding, and social upheaval to be signs that the ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
In May 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, severe weather struck Beijing ahead of the Chinese regime’s most important series of annual political meetings in the city, resulting in heavy storms, dark skies, hail, and heavy thunderstorms.
The same month, several other provinces, including Shandong and Guangdong experienced severe flooding, resulting in homes and businesses submerged in water, which led to widespread closures of schools and businesses throughout.
In August 2020, severe and continuous rain caused deadly landslides in the country’s Sichuan province, resulting in an unconfirmed number of casualties.
Reuters contributed to this article.