A tornado rips through a construction site in Turkey, killing 4 workers

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — A tornado hit a construction site in the Mediterranean coastal province of Antalya early on Tuesday, destroying a container housing workers and killing four of them, an official said.

A fifth worker, who was staying inside another container, was injured in the powerful storm that struck the building site in Antalya’s Kepez district, Gov. Hulusi Sahin told reporters.

Three of the workers who were killed were Syrian nationals, Sahin said. There was no immediate information on the condition of the injured worker.

The tornado, which came shortly after the country’s weather agency warned of heavy rains, also knocked down a crane at the site, Sahin said.

There was no damage in other parts of Kepez or Antalya — which will host the U.N. climate summit, COP31, next month.

Antalya and other locations along the Mediterranean coast periodically experience tornadoes, although deadly incidents are rare. Earlier this month, Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, was hit by severe floods that left eight people dead.