HAVANA — A tornado has cut a path of destruction across eastern Havana after last night’s pounding rains brought down trees, power poles and sent shards of metal roofing flying through the air.

Power was cut to many areas and President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Monday at least three people were killed and 172 injured.

Julio Menendez, a 33-year-old restaurant worker said Havana’s 10 de Octubre borough “looks like a horror movie.”

“From one moment to the next, we heard a noise like an airplane falling out of the sky. The first thing I did was go hug my daughters,” who are 9 and 12, he told The Associated Press.

Driver Oster Rodriguez said that amid a fierce storm, what looked like a thick, swirling cloud touched down in the central plaza of the Reparto Modelo neighbourhood “like a fireball.” He saw a bus blown over, though he said the driver escaped unharmed.

The windows in the seven-storey Daughters of Galicia Hospital had been sucked out of their frames by the wind, leaving curtains flapping in the breeze, and all the patients, new and expectant mothers, had to be evacuated. In the streets, a palm tree more than 30 feet (9 metres) tall had crushed a pre-revolutionary American car.

Photos posted on Twitter by Havana residents showed cars crushed by fallen light posts and cars trapped in floodwaters around the city. The neighbourhoods of Regla and 10 de Octubre and the town of San Miguel de Padron had been affected by the tornado.

At least three people have been killed after a tornado hit Havana, Cuba. https://t.co/TIPIxCp6XX

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) January 28, 2019

Leanys Calvo, a restaurant cook in the 10th of October borough, said she was working Sunday night despite heavy rain and wind when she heard a rumbling noise outside and looked out to see what appeared to be a tornado touching down.

“It was something that touched down, and then took off again. It was like a tower,” she said, describing it as displaying colours of red and green. “It was here for two-three seconds, nothing more. They were the most frightening seconds of my life.”