At least 12 people were killed and more than 100 injured as a freak storm ripped through Moscow – with a 20 year old female student ‘sliced to death’ by a falling tree.

The force of the winds was so strong that it pulled off part of the roof of the Kremlin Senate, an 18th century building housing Vladimir Putin’s top officials.

‘Due to hurricane winds in the northeast, south-west and east of Moscow, trees fell on pedestrians,’ said the city’s investigative committee, equivalent of the FBI.

People ‘died on the spot’ with winds recorded at 70mph – and 18,000 have been left without electricity.  MORE