Johannesburg - “There were cars in the air and there was this big rumble and wailing sound,” said Mario Nyangintaka who works at Phumulani Mall in Tembisa after a tornado hit the area on Tuesday.
Broken trees and tin from the caved-in roof of the shopping complex littered the parking lot.
Nyangintaka said he and some of his colleagues were on their lunch break when it started.
“We ran to the doors and tried to close them, but the wind was so strong, it forced them open,” he said.
“Cars were being moved and thrown around; I ran into the kitchen and hid under the counter.”
Soon after that, he said, the roof came down.
Hail and tornado visuals on East Rand @StanfromIBF @EMERGCONTROL pic.twitter.com/L3zYQft71O
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) July 26, 2016
“It was traumatic because we had to figure out who was okay and who wasn’t. It all happened so fast,” Nyangintaka said.
Another employee, who identified herself only as Mary, said: “There was this sound; it was loud like a truck was on top of us.
“The lights started going on and off. I hid under a steel table.”
Mary said the first thing she did when it was over was call her mother to check that her daughter was okay.
“I was so worried about her, but luckily it was only here along Hospital View.”
About 20 people were injured and 400 displaced by the tornado.
A Total garage sustained heavy damage. The roof was torn off while the front and inside of the store are unrecognisable.
Tshepo Mashabela, a truck driver, was nearby when the tornado began to form.
“I just saw this cloud coming down with a snake’s tail. It was going so quickly and kept changing form. I was so afraid because we didn’t know where it was going.
“This has never happened here before; it was the first time I'd seen something like it,” he said.
As the tornado moved nearer, Mashabela said it started to hail heavily and he watched as trees were pulled from the ground.
“There was a big wind, but we were lucky because we drove away in time.
The Star