Tornadoes kill at least 10 people across U.S. Midwest and South

Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through Arkansas, Illinois, Alabama, Indiana and the Little Rock area killed at least 10 people, shredded homes and shopping centres, and collapsed a theatre roof during a heavy metal concert.

Unrelenting tornadoes that tore through parts of the South and Midwest killed at least 10 people, shredded homes and shopping centres, and collapsed a theatre roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.

Emergency responders across the region counted the dead and surveyed the damage on April 1 morning after tornadoes touched down into the night, part of a sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest.

The dead included four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, Cross County Coroner Eli Long told KAIT-TV. Other deaths were reported in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana and the Little Rock area.

Wynne City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter said the town about 80 km west of Memphis, Tennessee, was without power and roads were full of debris.

“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said Friday night. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”

The storms also killed three people in Sullivan County, Indiana, Emergency Management Director Jim Pirtle said in an email. Some residents were missing in the county seat of Sullivan, near the Illinois line about 95 miles (150 kilometers) 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.