TORNADO HAVOC IN OKLAHOMA

US: A powerful tornado with winds of up to 200 miles (320 kilometres) per hour pulverized an Oklahoma City suburb Monday, hitting at least two schools and wiping out blocks of homes, killing many people. The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office gave the latest death toll, which was carried by all the major US television networks, which said the number of fatalities was expected to rise.

“Our first responders are stretched,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett told CNN. “The state, the National Guard are going to be involved.” Reporters for KFOR-TV saw pupils as young as nine being “pulled out” of the school in Moore, a residential community of 55,000 just south of Oklahoma’s state capital.

Anxious parents were being kept at a distance while search and rescue workers scrambled to free the pupils.

A second elementary school, Briarwood, was also hit but did not immediately appear to have sustained casualties. Early reports indicated that many students survived.

From its news helicopter, KFOR’s cameras captured scenes of widespread destruction, with street after street of single-story homes in Moore stripped of their roofs and cars piled atop each other like toys.

Utility lines were down and gas lines exposed, triggering localized fires. The Moore Medical Centre was evacuated after it sustained damage, a spokeswoman for the hospital told CNN. The National Guard was called out to help rescue efforts.

Storm spotters estimated the wedge-shaped tornado, which struck in mid-afternoon, to be as big as two miles (3.2 kilometres) wide. It briefly dissipated, only to recycle to the east, threatening the town of Meeker.

“We anticipate that these storms are going to continue to build around Oklahoma,” a grim Governor Mary Fallin told CNN, while the National Weather Service urged residents to take cover.

AFP