Whirlwind damages school, property
A public primary school building and private property have been partly damaged at Manja Township in Blantyre after a strong whirlwind struck the area on Friday afternoon (today).
The gusty tornado, which occurred at exactly 16.00hrs, removed the entire roof of an isolated kitchen at Manja Primary School which was constructed by Marys Meals meant for preparing porridge for school pupils.
However, no injury was reported as it occurred when workers and pupils had already knocked off. The roof was blown away at a distance of about 50 metres from the block.
The whirlwind also damaged some property and the building at a carpentry workshop, located some 150 metres away, leaving both, school custodian and workshop owner, distress.
“There were clear clouds with bright sunshine but all of a sudden we witness change of weather condition. We thought we were going to have a heavy downpour but to our surprise came a long and strong whirlwind. It hit the entire school structures but only managed to blow off the roof of the kitchen and the carpentry workshop before proceeding,” explained an eye witness, Emmanuel Phiri.
There was no immediate comment from the workshop proprietor and school head teacher who said she needed to report the matter to relevant authorities first.
