Video | Tornado rips through Auckland, New Zealand

The tornado, which  left a 5 km-long (3 mile-long) trail of damage, ‘touched down’ around 1500 (0300 GMT) in the city's Albany area and then moved south, felling trees and tearing roofs off houses.

Cars were overturned and a roof was also ripped off a shopping centre in Albany, local media said. Despite how the current casualty count is of only two people, Auckland Mayor Len Brown said that the death toll could rise. "We've had two confirmed fatalities, it's absolutely disastrous," he told local media.

"There's probably six or seven seriously damaged cars, and I saw cars flying off the ground about 30 meters (100 feet) in the air," shop owner Hamish Blair was reported as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

New Zealand's Stuff news website said that at least 18 people had been taken to hospital. Police are warning local residents to stay inside until the weather settled.