China braced Wednesday for extreme weather across several regions after a violent tornado killed at least 10 people in the eastern province of Jiangsu a day earlier.
The latest incident in weeks of destructive and deadly weather spurred authorities to call for vigilance against strong winds in coastal areas near the Yellow Sea off Jiangsu.
Tuesday's tornado was brief but fierce, with social media images showing overturned cars, downed power lines and flying debris, much of which littered the streets of Suqian, a city in the north of the province.
"I was at the door and witnessed the wind, solar energy devices, and trees flying in the air," wrote one user of popular social media platform Weibo. "For those two minutes, I was dumbfounded."
Broadcaster CCTV said two areas in the province were affected – Suqian and Yancheng. Five people were killed and four severely injured when the tornado suddenly hit a densely populated area at 5:20 p.m. (9:20 p.m. GMT) in Suqian, damaging 1,646 homes and leaving acres of crops devastated.
The tornado then ripped through Yancheng, killing five more and injuring four others, CCTV said.
Weather warnings also went out on Wednesday for the southwestern region of Chongqing, several areas in southwestern Guizhou, southern Hunan, eastern Anhui and central Hubei.
Torrential rain recently lashed China's southeast, causing massive evacuations, landslides and deaths in the wake of unrelenting storms brought by the remnants of Typhoon Haikui.
