In photos: A tornado tears through Russia’s Urals, injuring 16

A tornado struck the Sverdlovsk region on the evening of June 22, first touching down in the village of Malaya Laya.

“Everything was ripped away.

It’s heading for us!” witnesses say in one video posted on social media.

The tornado then intensified and bore down on the city of Kushva, which sustained the worst damage.

The Emergency Situations Ministry reported that 99 private residential homes in Kushva — a city of about 27,000 — were damaged, 32 of them destroyed outright.

Sixteen people were injured; one was transported to Nizhny Tagil with a broken arm.

Downed power lines left several thousand customers without electricity, and water service was also cut. ...