One woman has died and two are critically injured after a tree fell during Sydney storm
A woman has died and three people have been injured when a tree fell in a car park during a storm on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Emergency services received multiple reports of storm damage across the area from 3.30pm on Sunday, with trees and powerlines down across suburbs from Mona Vale to Forestville.
Police, NSW ambulance paramedics, Fire and Rescue NSW, and rescue helicopters responded to the incident at a car park on Ocean Street, Narrabeen, after reports a tree and powerlines had come down.
A woman believed to be aged in her 70s died at the scene.
NSW ambulance said a woman in her late teens was treated for spinal and head injuries, while another woman aged in her 70s was treated for multiple injuries. Both were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a serious condition.
A young boy was also assessed for minor injuries but did not need to go to hospital.
“This was just a tragic scene to attend. These women were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when this storm hit,” NSW ambulance Inspector Christie Marks said in a statement.
“As you can imagine the patients had multiple injuries after being hit by falling branches and other debris.
“The strength of the storm is evident in the destruction it caused. Given the size of this tree it’s remarkable that there weren’t more people injured.”
Elsewhere in NSW, severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds over the next several hours in parts of the Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, Central West Slopes and Plains and South West Slopes districts.
Meanwhile in Victoria, a severe thunderstorm warning for damaging winds and heavy rainfall has been issued for those in East Gippsland, West and South Gippsland and parts of North Central and North East forecast districts.