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Tornadoes kill at least 20 in the US

Tornadoes swept across the southern US and killed at least 20 people in three states, ripping up a hospital and high school where students huddled for shelter, authorities said yesterday.

Nine were killed in Georgia, where a hospital was hit late on Thursday, and 10 in two southern Alabama towns, officials said.

Eight students were killed when a tornado struck Enterprise High School in Alabama, blowing out the walls and collapsing part of the roof, Mayor Kenneth Boswell said yesterday. They were all in one wing of the school that took a direct hit, he said.

As the massive storm system swept into Georgia, another tornado apparently touched down near the Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, 188km south of Atlanta, killing at least two people and injuring an undetermined number of others, Buzz Weiss of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said.

At least 42 patients were evacuated to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Putney spokeswoman Jackie Ryan said.

Six more people were killed in the town of Newton, Georgia, and several homes were destroyed, fire chief Andy Belinc said early yesterday.

The burst of tornadoes was part of a larger line of thunderstorms and snowstorms that stretched from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast. Authorities blamed tornadoes for the deaths of a seven-year-old girl in Missouri, 10 people in Alabama and nine in Georgia, and twisters also damaged homes in Kansas.
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