Deadly tornado strikes Oklahoma
A tornado tears through central Oklahoma
At least eight people have been killed by a tornado which tore into a town in the US state of Oklahoma.
The tornado swept through a swathe of the town of Lone Grove on Tuesday evening, reports said. Local reports said up to 15 people may have died.
The tornado, one of at least three in the area, also left 14 people injured, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management department said.
Several buildings in the town of about 4,600 were destroyed by the tornado.
Thousands of people were said to be without power in Oklahoma and neighbouring Texas following the seasonally unusual twisters, which demolished trailer homes and snapped trees and power lines.
 The tornado storms also produced large hail stones |
But rescue workers and equipment have been deployed there and the search for survivors resumed at first light on Wednesday.
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry said: "We will do everything we can to get Oklahomans the assistance they need."
One deputy sheriff told The Oklahoman newspaper late on Tuesday that he believed there may have been more fatalities.
"I'm scared to death to see what daylight brings," he told the paper.
Ken Grace, sheriff for Carter County, which includes Lone Grove, told Reuters news agency there could be as many as 30 people missing.
Television reports showed buildings reduced to rubble, roofs ripped from homes and cars smashed into each other.
Lone Grove resident Joe Hornback told the Associated Press news agency that 30 people from his street had sought shelter from the storm in a small cellar.
There was calm before the tornado hit, he told the AP. "Then you just heard the wind blow, just like you turned the light switch on."
Damage was also reported elsewhere in the state, including Edmund, a suburb of Oklahoma City.
The National Weather Service has issued tornado watches for the area to the east of Oklahoma.
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