The storm hit the watchmaking city of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Neuchatel region bordering France.
The storm "unfortunately caused the death of one person in their 50s following the toppling of a construction crane", the Neuchatel police said.
"About 15 injured people were taken care of by the emergency services."
The storm passed through quickly but the strong winds caused significant damage.
Vehicles were damaged or destroyed, roofs were torn off, street furniture was blown away and trees were uprooted.
"A likely tornado associated with a rapidly developing storm along the Jura" hit La Chaux-de-Fonds in the late morning, according to the Swiss national weather service.
"A gust of 217 kilometres (135 miles) per hour was recorded by our station at La Chaux-de-Fonds aerodrome this Monday morning, under a storm cell which suddenly strengthened when arriving in the region," MeteoSwiss said on Twitter.
Rescue and clean-up operations are under way, while the Neuchatel police urged people not to expose themselves to risks such as falling tiles or trees.
It also warned that further storms were likely and urged people to avoid going outside.
Before reaching Switzerland, the storm hit eastern France. The Doubs department authorities told AFP that Montlebon, around 18 kilometres from La Chaux-de-Fonds, had been hit the hardest.
The village hall, the church and the school as well as "around 15 houses" suffered roof damage. There were no injuries.
Elsewhere on the French side of the border, around 30 houses were also affected, with the full extent of the damage as yet unknown.
Yemen storm destroys airport facade, wounding six
Aden (AFP) July 24, 2023 -
A severe storm in southern Yemen blew through the glass facade of a key airport on Monday, wounding six passengers, damaging planes and forcing airlines to cancel two flights, officials said.
The incident at the airport in Aden coincided with torrential rainfall and heavy winds as the summer monsoon season exposes the climate-vulnerable country to flash floods and severe precipitation.
At least four children were among the six people wounded when a glass facade at an airport terminal collapsed due to the storm early Monday, said an airport official.
Two flights -- one to the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah and the other to Egypt's capital -- were consequently cancelled, said the airport official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to brief the press.
The storm also damaged two planes and destroyed some of the walls surrounding the Aden facility, airport director Abdul Raqeeb al-Omari told Yemen's Saba news agency.
Traffic returned to normal later on Monday, Saba said.
The University of Notre Dame's Global Adaptation Initiative ranks Yemen as one of the region's most climate-vulnerable countries.
In recent years, Yemen has seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of summertime rainfall due to climate change acting on atmospheric circulation in the Indian Ocean.
The Arabian Peninsula's poorest country has been hit by six cyclones in the past six years, up from four in the preceding 25 years, according to a May report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Norwegian Red Cross.
The country, already grappling with a devastating eight-year-long conflict, also experienced heavy flooding in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the report said.
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