A freak wave of tornadoes ripped through northern Poland late Saturday, causing one fatality and injuring 10 others as the wind reached speeds of 200 kilometres per hour.

The meteorological authorities categorized the tornado as Class Two, which flattened 400 hectares of woodlands. It wrecked residential buildings and this car is just a screwed up ball of steel. Everywhere is devastation. Engineers are working to fix phone lines and cabling. And the plaintive sound you can hear is a distressed cat. No doubt crying for its owner.

One man stands in amazement amid his flattened house. As the camera pans round you can see a horse, standing in what was probably his sitting room. Speaking in Polish he explained what happened.

"The tornado swept over from the lake and it turned to what we see here in an instant. Our two-story house was gone all of a sudden to another world. You simply had no time to get or store anything," said a local resident.

This Polish Tornado comes after gales, hailstorms, heavy rains and floods have badly affected Europe,Japan and China in the past few weeks. As the rescue work continues, about 12,000 local volunteers and fire-fighters are helping with rebuilding and clearing up.

Written and Presented by Ann Salter