US storms kill at least seven

A family evacuates their Walnut Ridge neighbourhood in Little Rock, Arkansas. Pic/AFP

A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly weather including tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centres in Arkansas, collapsed a theatre roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois and made a fatal sweep into rural Indiana.

The storm caused three deaths in Sullivan County, Indiana, Emergency Management Director Jim Pirtle said on early Saturday. The storm damaged homes and some residents were missing in the county seat of Sullivan, located near the Illinois state line about 152 kilometres southwest of Indianapolis. At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.

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Authorities said a theatre roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28, five of them severely. The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theatre at 7.48 pm. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage. The collapse occurred at the Apollo Theatre during a heavy metal concert in the town located about 113 kilometres northwest of Chicago. Belvidere Fire Department Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue. He said first responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to grapple with downed power lines outside the theatre. Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as "chaos, absolute chaos".

In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria. More than 1,09,000 customers had lost power in the state as of Friday night. More outages were reported in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Indiana and Texas. The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week.

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