One dead, 15 injured, in Auckland tornado

May 3, 2011, 7:43 GMT

Wellington - One person was killed and about 15 were injured when a tornado tore a 5-kilometre swathe through the northern suburbs of Auckland on Tuesday, city mayor Len Brown said.

The tornado ripped the roof of a shopping mall in Albany, 20 kilometres north of Auckland, overturned cars, lifted sheets of metal roofing from homes, uprooted trees and tossed garden furniture and trampolines in the air, news reports said.

Brown told the TV3 channel that the death toll, initially put at two, had been confirmed as one and at least one of about 15 injured people was in a critical condition.

A supermarket and a large hardware store were damaged as the tornado, with a reported wind speed of 200 kilometres an hour, ripped through the suburbs.

Brown said it was a miracle that the death toll was not higher. 'It was one big mean beast of a tornado,' he said.

Prime Minister John Key told reporters in Wellington, 'It's been a very powerful and quite devastating tornado that's caused a significant amount of damage in a very localised area.'