Russian media reports say gale-force winds have blown a woman off her balcony on the Pacific island of Sakhalin.
The Interfax news agency reported on December 26 that the 65-year-old woman from the town of Shakhtyorsk went out on the balcony to smoke a cigarette and was blown off, landing on a snowdrift below.
The woman was transported to a hospital in the back of a construction truck because an ambulance was unable to reach her home.
Local media reports said the woman fell from the fourth floor -- breaking an arm and three ribs and leaving her with a concussion.
Sakhalin in Russia's Far East has been hit with a series of snowstorms since December 25 with wind gusts in the area of the woman's fall reaching about 150 kilometers per hour.
