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While the United States is home to the vast majority of tornadoes in the world, accounting for around 75% of all global tornadoes, that still means around 1 in 4 tornadoes happen internationally. One such tornado landed in Tanjung Sengkuang, Batam City, Riau Islands Province in Indonesia yesterday and struck a construction site.
To say this job site was grossly unprepared for a tornado would be the understatement of the century. The violent storm ripped through the area sending metal projectiles flying in every direction and peeling off flimsy roofs with ease.
Violent Tornado Hits Batam, Indonesia And Sends Projectiles In Every Direction (Video)
Batam City is the largest city in the Riau Islands in Indonesia. It is just a short ferry ride, 45-60 minutes, from Singapore, and has become a popular golfing destination in the region as well as a regional tech hub and free-trade zone. All of that is to say, this is not some remote and uninhabited island within the greater Indonesian archipelago, it’s a busy spot.
When this violent tornado struck the Indonesian construction site it seemed to materialize out of thin air, literally. Workers were caught off guard and sent fleeing for cover as the roofs of buildings were ripped off around them and potentially lethal debris was flung into the air.
🇮🇩 Whoahh! This is crazy! (Keep watching).
A tornado hit Tanjung Sengkuang, Batam City, Riau Islands Province in Indonesia today.
It's almost invisible and came out of nowhere 👀 pic.twitter.com/th8GLJ5zjM
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) July 22, 2026
Pro tip: if you see sharp metal slabs swirling and spinning through the air and being flung around by a tornado that is when you want to get as far away from there as fast as humanly possible. Also, if that X video isn’t loading, the clip can also be seen on Instagram there.
According to this study published in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, the archipelago of Indonesia, which is made up of 17,508 islands, experiences a total of 16 tornadoes per year on average. So while they are not entirely unheard of in Indonesia that is approximately 0.000914 tornadoes per island annually. Compare that to Texas which sees ~132/year or Oklahoma which sees 56/year. Florida sees up to 66/year on average.