Two die as storm winds, lightning hit Kosovo

PRISTINA (Reuters) -A man was killed and a woman injured when a falling tree hit them during a storm in Kosovo’s capital Pristina on Monday afternoon, police said.

Less than an hour later, another man was killed and his workmate injured when lightning hit them in a marble quarry in the southwestern town of Rahovec, officers added.

Police said they were on alert for more damage elsewhere following the fierce gusts and heavy rain. Some schools closed early.

“You have to be cautious especially in parts of the city where there are trees,” Pristina’s deputy mayor, Alban Zogaj, wrote on his Facebook page.

Police said the man and woman, both in their 30s, were walking when high winds toppled the tree. Officers had earlier said they were in a car.

The men hit in Rahovec were both Turkish nationals, authorities said.

“They were working in a marble quarry when lightning hit them,” the town’s police commander, Fazli Morina, told Reuters.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)