Strong winds wreak havoc across city
A truck driver escaped serious injury when his vehicle was crushed by one of 10 shipping containers that tumbled from their stacks after being hit by strong winds in Tsing Yi yesterday.
A truck driver escaped serious injury when his vehicle was crushed by one of 10 shipping containers that tumbled from their stacks after being hit by strong winds in Tsing Yi yesterday.
The Observatory said gusts of more than 80km/h were recorded in the district when the accident happened shortly before 3pm.
The 58-year-old man was driving on Tsing Yi Hong Wan Road. Ten empty containers toppled from their stacks in a container yard and one of them fell onto the road hitting the passing truck, according to police.
The driver suffered minor injuries to his face, hands and back and the left side of his vehicle was badly crushed. He was treated at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Separately, a 20 metre by 50 metre piece of scaffolding built around a block of flats was blown down by strong winds in Fuk Lo Tsun Road, Kowloon City hitting three passing vehicles - two Mercedes Benz and a minibus - at about 2.55pm. No one was injured in the incident. At about 2.45pm, two men fell into sea from their sampan when it was hit by strong winds off Po Toi Island.
They were fishing about 100 metres from the shore at the time of the incident.
A police spokesman said the two swam ashore and neither was injured.
The incidents happened after the Observatory issued a thunderstorm warning at 2pm.
Senior scientific officer Tam Kwong-hung said a trough of low pressure formed in Guangdong because of a collision of warm and cold air.
A band of rain and thunderstorms swept across the city between 2.15pm and 3.30pm as the trough moved down.
"Between 2.30pm and 3pm, gusts of 80km/h were recorded in Tsing Yi, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kai Tak," he said.
Tam said the winds eased off after 3.30pm.
An amber rainstorm warning was hoisted at 2.30pm and lasted for nearly two hours.
Tam said Sai Kung recorded more than 30mm of rainfall in an hour while other areas had 10mm to 20mm.
He said cloudy weather with rain was expected in the next few days.
