
Two girl scouts were crushed to death by falling trees while sleeping in a tent in forest. Five people, including two teenage girl scouts, died and more than 30 were injured as a result of falling trees in a series of severe storms that hit Poland overnight, Irish Times reports.
The girls, 13 and 14, were crushed by falling trees while sleeping in a tent when a storm hit their campground late on Friday in the Tuchola Forest in northern Poland, according to the Regional Crisis Management Team office in Gdansk.
Some 20 scouts were injured and taken to local hospitals.
Adam Kralisz, chairman of the Lodz Region of the Scouting Association of the Republic (Poland), where the scouts were from, told the private Polsat television that evacuation was ordered immediately, but conditions were horrendous.
“We had to force our way for kilometres through the forest, among falling trees,” he said.
Three other victims also died as a result of falling trees and 10 people were injured in separate incidents in Poland’s north.
More than 170,000 people were left without power and 800 buildings were damaged in storms that hit mostly Poland’s north and west, according to the Regional Crisis Management Team in Gdansk.