Multiple people were injured when a tree fell on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston as strong winds and a wintry system began pummeling the Chicago area Thursday.
The incident happened sometime after noon Thursday near Sheridan and Library Place just as students were getting out of class.
"First-arriving companies responded within minutes, finding multiple patients lying on the ground alongside a tree," the city said in a release.
Four people in total were hurt, one critically, two others were in serious condition and one person suffered minor injuries, according to authorities. Three were hospitalized at Evanston Hospital and one was treated at the scene.
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The university said in a statement that all of those injured were staff members.
"The University is working with an arborist to determine what caused the tree to fall, and if other trees in the area are potentially compromised," the university said in a statement. "Crews also have been called in to assess and fix damage to nearby power lines. Our thoughts are with the members of our community who were injured, as we await updates on their conditions."
Photos and video from the scene show a large police and fire presence, along with yellow police tape enclosing an area with several large, broken tree branches.
Local
Wind gusts at the time were between 25 and 30 mph, according to the NBC 5 Storm Team.
The area was under a winter weather advisory warning of hazardous conditions that include snow, sleet, ice and strong winds.
The advisory alerted that gusts as high as 40 mph were possible "leading to blowing snow in exposed locations."
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