One person was killed and more than a dozen others injured on Saturday when a thunderstorm packing high winds blew down a sports bar's beer tent on to baseball fans celebrating after a St. Louis Cardinals' game, police said.
Several of those injured when the tent blew over were listed in critical condition at area hospitals, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer Sherri Bruns told Reuters. The tent was set up as a beer garden at Kilroy's Sports Bar about a block from Busch Stadium, home to the Cardinals.
Bruns said others were being treated for less serious injuries.
The person killed was identified only as a male.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told local television station KMOX that 17 people were injured, five of whom were in serious or critical condition. Up to 100 people were treated on the scene, The Associated Press reported, and 200 were celebrating under the tent.
Bruns, the police officer, said the storm, which brought wind, heavy rain and some hail, moved quickly through the St. Louis area. The storm struck about an hour after the Cardinal defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-3.
"I thought a train fell off the track," the bar's owner, Art Randall, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. "We all ducked for cover. Everything was going sideways. I had metal chairs ripping across the beer garden."
The National Weather Service posted a tornado warning for the St. Louis area Saturday, with a risk of baseball-sized hail.
Eddie Roth, a spokesman for the St. Louis Department of Public Safety, told the AP that winds of about 50 mph shattered aluminum poles that held up the tent, which was located south of the stadium. The force of the wind blew the tent onto an adjacent railroad bridge.
"It was crazy, scary," said Annie Randall, whose family owns Kilroy's. "We're just so sorry this happened."
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