Mangaluru: A characteristically North American phenomenon like tornadoes made an uncharacteristic appearance in the Arabian Sea off Panambur beach on Monday.

The relative small waterspout made landfall somewhere between the breakwater and old watch tower before heading landward, bringing with it strong winds in the process, noted Yathish Baikampady, chief executive officer of Panambur Beach Tourism Development Project.

A video captured by the lifeguards of the project shows the waterspout making progress towards the land, even as lifeguards are heard blowing their whistles warning tourists and locals to steer clear from its path.

Yathish told that being a weekday, there weren’t many tourists and lifeguards had no problems in vacating the beach and prevented any untoward incident. The district had last seen one such landspout on Swaraj Maidan in Moodbidri, he recalled.