Tornadoes are all fun and games until they strike a shopping mall, you see.

Yesterday we showed you the tornado in the Magaliesburg area, about 80 km from Jozi (HERE), and it looked like it was just going to peter out before wrecking havoc.

Well perhaps it did, but the same can’t be said for the twister that struck in Ekurhuleni – which has now damaged a mall, a hospital and a petrol station.

First up a rather excited chap filming the tornado in action:

Eyewitnesses talking to TimesLive describe the chaotic scenes at an Ekurhuleni mall:

“I was at the Capitec bank doing some errands when the lights first went off and on at the bank. At first I wasn’t paying attention because it was raining and I thought the cables had faults and then we had car alarms go off from the parking lot and then papers starting flying in the bank,” Siko said.

“A security guard quickly closed the door as he thought there was some sort of robbery at the mall‚ at this point people started screaming and it got chaotic. I asked to run out because I am claustrophobic. I ran towards a passage by the bank where other people also ran for cover. Suddenly we saw a roof falling off and the car alarms were still going strong‚” she added…

“After the wind went away I ran towards my car. A lot of cars were damaged with windows smashed and two trucks overturned. Luckily my car was still fine so I drove straight home because I was worried about my family, and on my way there the road was damaged and street pole cables hanging on the road‚” she said.

More video, this time from Thembisa:

And pictures of the havoc it left in its wake:

We’ll leave you with this picture, because hindsight is 20/20…

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]