Tornadoes touch down in Western Australia

Emergency services walk through a video store destroyed by a tornado which swept through Perth’s northern suburbs. [ABC TV]

It was a stormy Thursday for Western Australia when several tornadoes passed through the state.

Earlier in the day the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued severe thunderstorm warnings for the region southwest of Perth as an area of low pressure began producing showers and thunderstorms.

By noon, weather conditions began to deteriorate and residents described a destructive tornado ripping through the town of Dianella and Morley in Western Australia.

The main thoroughfare of Dianella looked like a war zone. Sam Durham said, “I saw trees getting ripped out of the ground, one got dragged about 10 metres down the street, then I saw sheets of metal flying 30 to 40 metres through the air.”

Toppled trees also brought down power lines. Western Power crews were assessing and repairing the damage that cut the power to over 5000 homes.

The cost of the damage is still being tallied, but could well over 6 figures in Australian dollars.

The bureau of meteorology says that up to 9 weather systems with the potential to bring tornadoes pass through Perth between May and October each year.