A woman died after being hit by a tree during a severe thunderstorm on Saturday, Peel Regional Police say.
Police say the woman was struck shortly after 1:30 p.m. in the area of Belmont Drive and Birchbank Road in Brampton.
“Large tree hit woman who was walking during storm,” police wrote in a tweet.
The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she died.
A Peel Police spokesperson told CBC News the woman was reportedly walking between two houses when the tree fell on her.
Emergency crews managed to pull her out from under the tree and transported her to the hospital.
Police say the woman is believed to be in her 70s.
Meanwhile, Toronto initially told CBC News that they received a call that a boat with 15 to 20 people capsized during the storm.
Police later clarified that they were called to the West Humber Bay Shores area for reports of a sailboat with people on board attempting to return to shore.
Police say their marine unit responded, along with Toronto firefighters and paramedics, but were unable to locate any stranded or capsized boats or vessels.
Police say there was no sign of anyone in distress.
Marine units will continue to patrol the waters to ensure everyone’s safety, police wrote in an email to CBC News.
Several cities and towns were under a thunderstorm warning as severe storms hit Toronto and most of the GTA on Saturday afternoon.
At the peak of the storm, Environment Canada said wind gusts of up to 100 km/h and hail the size of a ton were possible in some places.
“This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Large hail can damage property and cause injury,” Environment Canada said in a statement.
“Extremely strong, widespread wind gusts can destroy buildings with tornado-like damage, flatten large stands of trees, and blow vehicles off the road.”
Places affected by the storms include:
- Hamilton.
- Toronto
- Milton.
- Burlington.
- Brampton.
- Oakville.
- Mississauga.
- Vaughan.
- Richmond Hill.
- marham.
- Ireland.
- Halton Hills.
- Ancaster.
- Dundas.
- Watery.
- Caledon.
- King City.
- Dawn.
- Downtown Toronto.
- Rockwood.
- Stratford.
Thousands in Mississauga without power
Meanwhile, thousands of customers in Mississauga are without power due to the storm, Alectra Utilities says.
Hydro One was also responding to outages caused by thunderstorms moving across southwestern Ontario.
The company says it is trying to restore power as quickly as possible.
We are responding to disruptions caused by severe thunderstorms moving across southwestern Ontario as quickly and safely as possible. Please visit our map for updates or to report an outage: https://t.co/hmWGJ5o0vS #ONstorm pic.twitter.com/DidTqHfSJG
Reference-www.cbc.ca