‘Mini tornado’ destroys part of Kent station roof

A “miracle escape” was how shocked witnesses described the mini-tornado which caused the collapse of a large section of the roof in Cork train station.

The freak weather which ripped through the station moments after the Cork-Cobh train had left the platform at 3pm left a woman in her 20s injured.

Staff and onlookers at the station all spoke of the relief that no one had been killed in the incident, which scattered huge chunks of the roof several hundred metres across the station carpark.

On the platform, a large portion of the roof collapsed onto a train which was not in service, while the rest slumped onto the platform which seconds earlier had contained passengers bound for Cobh.

Train driver Ian Fuller, who witnessed the event, said a train bound for Cobh had left the station 35 seconds before the roof was ripped from the platform by what he said could only be described as a “mini tornado”.

“I have never seen anything like it. The Cobh train had just pulled away from the platform.

“I was looking at the canopy flapping as the wind picked up and it was exactly 35 seconds after the train had left when all of a sudden huge chunks of the roof were in the air. A big piece lifted off and smashed off the wall next to our canteen but luckily it didn’t come through the window,” he said.

The train driver said it was a miracle that no one was hurt in the incident which shut down the entire train station.

“It was a miracle no was badly hurt because if it had come down around 5pm or 6pm it could have been different. There were four people on the platform when it happened. Three of them just ran towards the concourse. I saw one woman come through covered on one side in black dust and holding her arm so she seemed to have been injured by some of the debris,” he said.

Tamas Liszkai, who works in a garage across the road from the train station, was returning from his lunch when he saw “a tornado” lift sections of the roof into the air and crash towards the front of the station.

“I saw the wind, like a tornado, and heard crashing. The first part ripped off and was blown towards the main entrance. A bus was picking people up at the entrance and I though it was going to crash in to them.”

“And a few seconds later, the entire roof was destroyed. I saw pieces flying everywhere — it was like a huge explosion. I thought more people might be injured,” he said.

Like many others who were on the scene seconds after the roof collapsed, elderly rights campaigner Paddy O’Brien was shocked by the destruction, saying it was “a miracle” nobody had died.

The damage caused by the freak tornado didn’t end there. Just down the road from the train station, a number of houses on the lower Glanmire Road were also damaged by the high winds.

Lucas Ckijspi said there was “panic” after the roof collapse but said emergency services arrived on the scene very quickly.

“It was a very sharp, very hard wind and I just saw the roof flying. It was all very quick, it was over in seconds,” he said.

A local resident, who declined to be named, said he was sitting in his front room when he heard a huge bang.

“There was torrential rain at the time and next thing I heard was a huge bang.

“I suppose the best way to describe it was like as if something had fallen out of the sky.

“I looked out the door and, as you can see, there was damage and slates everywhere. There was a bit of damage to the front of my house. It all happened all of a sudden and was all over in a few seconds,” he said.