[WATCH] Tornado smashes through northern Italy

Dramatic footage has emerged of a tornado that ripped through northern Italy, damaging hundreds of buildings and injuring at least 12 people.

Amateur footage from small towns near the regional capital of Bologna showed the storm tearing through the countryside.

Farmers who were out in their fields were blasted by the winds as well as pummelled by a barrage of hale stones.

Italian media reported 12 people wounded and damage to several properties.

The governor of Emilio-Romagna has asked the central government to declare a state of emergency.

For local residents when it pours it rains as around the same time a 3.8 magnitude earthquake was detected in nearby Ferrara

This is also the region that was struck by a devastating earthquake and subsequent aftershocks last summer, killing 27 and destroying hundreds of buildings.

Amateur video showed the twister as it struck towns and villages close to Emilia Romagna's regional capital Bologna.

Footage on YouReporter, a web portal for citizen journalists, showed the tornado directly over the small village of Bentivoglio.