A tornado killed seven people and seriously injured 72 in Jiangsu Province on Wednesday. It was the worst of several extreme weather events that have hit China in recent days.

It struck at around 4:40 PM, sweeping through several townships of Yancheng City's Jianhu County and destroying over 2,600 houses, according to the Yangtze Evening News. Some 500 people reported minor injuries.

Total damage to crops has not yet been assessed. 

Dazhi Village was the hardest hit, with four dead and 30 seriously injured.

The twister also disrupted power and telecommunications systems in the two worst hit townships.

Most of the victims were hit by debris from collapsed houses.

Also on Tuesday, Huludao, a coastal city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, was hit by a fierce thunderstorm, but no injuries were reported.

"I was at the center of the storm. A lightning bolt struck an 18-meter-tall poplar tree, flowed through the cement roof of a warehouse and exploded inside," said an official named Mou from the local weather bureau.

Mou said the storm struck in a suburb of the town with few inhabitants.

"It was around 3:00 in the morning when we were awakened by a great noise outside," said one villager, as quoted by Chinese Business Morning. "My wife and I got up and heard the huge rumbles coming closer and closer. Suddenly we saw the poplar crowned by fire and then bang, with a large explosion the fireball burst and hit the house next to ours just like a firecracker."

All lights in the village went out the moment the bolt struck.

"Our TV receiver was set on fire instantly and turned black," said another resident who was watching TV at the time.

According to Mou, almost all electronic appliances of the 200 local inhabitants were damaged by the storm, including TV sets, telephones and computers, adding that power was still down.

Also on Tuesday, a sandstorm hit the city of Ji'nan in the eastern province of Shandong. Visibility was reduced to only a few dozen meters.

Much of northern China has been visited by the worst sandstorms so far this year, brought by strong northerly winds hitting areas from Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and reaching as far as Shandong.

(China Daily April 21, 2005)