Five killed after tornado hits Missouri

A tornado that struck the Midwestern US state of Missouri early Wednesday morning killed at least five people, according to local authorities.

Images broadcast on the Fox 2 television channel showed downed trees and destroyed houses in Glenallen, a town in Bollinger County, in the southeastern part of the state.

"Five fatalities confirmed," Sergeant Clark Parrott, spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, told AFP.

Multiple towns in the area "were hit with what appears to be a significant tornado," Bollinger County Sheriff Casey A. Graham wrote in a post on Facebook, confirming the death toll at five.

"Throughout the early morning and continuing now, efforts for search and rescue are underway."

Tornados — which are difficult to predict by meteorologists — are relatively common in the United States, mostly appearing in the middle and south of the country. 

Tornados and powerful storms swept multiple states last weekend, killing at least 32 people. 

The southern state of Tennessee was hit especially hard, with the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reporting "15 weather-related fatalities." 

A week earlier, a tornado touched down in Mississippi, killing at least 25. Amid the destruction, the governor declared a state of emergency, and President Joe Biden visited the battered town of Rolling Fork.