Kuala Lumpur, Apr 2 (IANS): A huge waterspout made landfall at a Malaysian seaside resort, causing damage to a number of buildings in the area, according to the New Straits Times. No injuries were reported.

Several videos of the waterspout on Monday afternoon went viral on social media sites. The high-definition videos the rare natural phenomenon.

"The residents in Penang thought it's a tornado. No, it's not! It's a waterspout! ...Rather scary!" a Twitter user said sharing a picture of the towering waterspout.

Eyewitnesses on the island captured the dramatic spinning waterspout at sea as it moved slowly towards an area just north of Tanjung Tokong Beach and made the landfall.

The spout was seen spinning near Tanjung Tokong's shores for about five minutes before it briefly arrived on land, Channel News Asia reported.

Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes, but form over water when cool and unstable air passes over warmer waters and turns into a spinning column of water. They tend to collapse once they move across solid ground.