6 Die, 122 Hurt as Windy Storm Rips Up Moscow
Six people died and 122 others, including five children, were hospitalized after a hurricane-like storm hit Moscow early Sunday, the mayor’s office said.
The storm also destroyed tens of thousands of trees and damaged the Bolshoi Theater and the walls of the Kremlin.
“The damage done to the city is huge,” a spokesman for Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov told the Interfax news agency.
The storm filled streets and yards with debris of fallen trees and advertising billboards, burying cars and disrupting trolley bus and tram communications in the city of nearly 10 million people.
Winds were recorded at 60 mph, but whirlwinds in some places gusted much higher, according to Raisa Yeliseyeva of the Moscow weather center.
Television showed pictures of two boats sunk in the city’s river port, at least one of them driven into the water by a collapsed construction crane.
Air traffic controllers said the storm led to only a brief disruption of work at Moscow airports, causing delays in several flights.
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