Rare tornado tears into small town near Los Angeles

A tornado in Montebello, California, ripped caused severe damage to several buildings in the area.

A tornado has torn through a small town just south of Los Angeles, tossing debris and causing shock among residents who witnessed the twister.

One person was reported injured during the incident on Wednesday night.

Wind speeds of the tornado reached up to 110mph (177km/h), the strongest in Los Angeles County since 1983.

It was the second tornado to hit southern California in the last two days as a recent barrage of bad weather continues to plague the state.

Seventeen buildings in the town were damaged by the tornado.

“We heard a big bang,” said Miriam Braxton, a nearby witness who recalled the events in an interview with CBS, BBC’s US media partner. “We thought it was a car accident.”

Ms Braxton works next door to the building where some of the most severe tornado damage occurred, she said. The twister nearly ripped the entire roof off the industrial building.

“We didn’t know what to do. We hid under our desks,” she said.

She described a “huge cloud of debris” filled with trash, nails, and roof tiling that she said rammed into her car.

Officials said the tornado touched down in Montebello just after 11:00 local time (18:00 GMT), damaging 17 total buildings, but 11 so severely that they have been deemed to dangerous to inhabit.

After assessing the damage, the National Weather Service rated the tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale – a measure used to determine tornado power and impact – as an EF-1. The lowest rating is 0, the highest is 5.

During a press conference, a NWS official called tornadoes in the Los Angeles area “quite rare”. He added that they do typically land in other parts of California, the third biggest state by geographical area in the US.

He said one person suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital but appears to be OK.

“Our hearts go out to everyone who was impacted by the severe weather today,” said Ariel Cohen, a NWS meteorologist on the scene. “We see the damage was extensive and that many people were affected by it.”