Hundreds of sunbeds and sun parasols were ripped from the ground and sent swirling into the air in powerful winds on a tourist spot in Italy.
A raging tornado hit the coast of Tuscany last week, a region more usually famous for its vineyards, rolling hills and artistic legacy.
Debris from the resort was strewn along the sands and in a car park 50 metres away, with extensive damage to the club although there were no reports of injuries.
The whirling wind originated as a waterspout (a tornado over the sea, such as the one blamed for sinking the Bayesian superyacht) but then struck the land on September 5.
It wrought the most destruction at the Bagno Giglio resort in Marina di Grosseto, Italian media reported.
Umbrellas and sunbeds were lifted by the strong wind and carried to a nearby car park, causing some damage to parked vehicles, Il Tirreno reported.
As an orange weather warning was in place, the beach was mostly deserted.
Beach club owner Claudio Castellucci told the paper he estimated the damage to be at least €60,000, saying it ‘means I’ve worked for nothing this year. Obviously, if the tornado had arrived earlier it would have been even worse, but it was complete devastation.’
But he said he appreciated the support he had received after the freak weather.
The resort has now reopened, but with only half the umbrellas and without the children’s playground which was destroyed completely.
‘I put up about fifty umbrellas,’ Castellucci said. ‘I left the ones that were saved, plus those I had in storage.
‘Overall, I have 112 fewer loungers and 60 fewer umbrellas.’
The local council has applied to the Tuscany region for recognition of a state of natural disaster in order to ‘activate the regional funds needed to compensate for the damage suffered by private individuals’.
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