Share this page Email Print 1K Share Facebook Twitter Massive tornado rips through Oklahoma City suburbs

A gigantic tornado has ripped through a suburb of Oklahoma City, on the second day in a row the Midwestern state of Oklahoma has been slammed by twisters.

The "mile-wide" storm destroyed a primary school, sparked fires, and flattened homes.
Scores of primary school children are believed to be trapped under the debris, local media reported.
On Sunday, at least two people died and 21 more were injured by the tornadoes that also razed a mobile home park.
'Long recovery'

The tornado generated winds of up to 200mph (321km/h)

Children are being pulled alive from the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of about 55,000 people just south of Oklahoma City.
The twister struck about 16:00 local time (22:00 BST) on Monday.
There have been no reports of children injured or killed there.
Volunteers and rescue workers could be seen picking through the rubble in aerial news footage.
The National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday's tornado generated winds of up to 200mph (321km/h).
"It's going to take a while to recover from something like this," Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole told CNN.
The storm has been given a preliminary classification of EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale.
The town of Moore was hit by a severe tornado in 1999, which had the highest winds ever recorded on earth.
But Betsy Randolph of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol told local news station Skynews 9 that the damage on Monday appeared to exceed that of the last devastating tornado.
Tornadoes, hail and high winds also hit Iowa and Kansas, part of a storm system stretching from Texas to Minnesota.
'Everything is gone'

On Sunday, a tornado smashed a trailer park on Highway 102 near Shawnee, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's state medical examiner confirmed on Monday that two people had been killed near a trailer park there: Glen Irish, 79, and Billy Hutchinson, 76.
Both lived in Shawnee, but it was not immediately clear if either or both lived in mobile home park.
The Oklahoman newspaper reported that five people were brought to Norman Regional Hospital for injuries, with three injured critically.
Thousands of residents in the affected areas have been left without power.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency in 16 counties in order to send aid to the worst-hit parts of the state.
At least four tornadoes ravaged the state on Sunday, part of a storm system that was moving north-east across the Midwestern states and Texas.
"Right now we're in a rescue and recovery stage," Gov Fallin said. "We're still not in the clear yet."
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