A taxi with passengers inside was blown over by dust devil mini-tornado which ripped through a busy road.

The swirling vortex of dirt shocked onlookers when it appeared in Sultan Kudarat, the Philippines, on Tuesday (March 3) afternoon.

Mobile phone footage shows how the powerful whirlwind zipped along the pavement before crossing onto the road.

A green motorcycle sidecar taxi with passengers inside was flipped over by the force of the mini-tornado - a rare recorded case of dust devils injuring people and causing damage.

Those inside suffered minor bruises and scrapes but were not seriously injured.

Onlooker Larryboy Bioco said he felt a strong, hot gust before the whirlwind has formed.

He said: ''I was standing on the pavement and could feel something happening, then there was a wind blowing and then I saw the twister.''

Another resident, Marvin, said the dust devil lasted for 10 minutes.

He said: ''It was reaching up into the sky and blowing everything around. The trees were shaking and the shops were blowing. All the rubbish on the ground was being flung around.

''It was quite powerful and damaged the banners on buildings. It also caused the tricycle to get knocked over. It came out of nowhere and was pretty scary.''

Dust devils are powerful whirlwinds that an be more than 1,000 metres tall and 10 metres wide. They consist of vertical columns of rotating wind which are formed on hot, dry days when concentrated shafts of warm air rise.

However, dust devils rarely cause serious damage and are not as powerful as tornadoes.