At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area and caused substantial damage while six people have died in flooding in the US mid-west.

Dashboard video footage released involving the traffic stop in Texas of a woman later found dead in her jail cell appears to have been doctored, an award-winning Hollywood director said.

Ten people were killed and five severely injured when a Texas prison bus carrying 15 people skidded off an icy highway overpass and hit a moving freight train yesterday, officials said.

Police in Indiana have admitted it could take years to investigate whether others have fallen prey to Darren Vann, a convicted sex offender suspected of murdering at least seven women.

The secluded Texas ranch where followers of imprisoned polygamist Warren Jeffs lived in near isolation has been seized by state agents, nearly six years after the FBI raided the property and removed hundreds of children amid child sex allegations.

The US Army's Fort Hood has reported an active shooter to Texas authorities.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the massive Texas fertiliser plant explosion that killed 14 people, after weeks of largely treating the blast as an industrial accident.

The bodies of 12 people have been recovered after an enormous Texas fertiliser plant explosion that demolished surrounding neighbourhoods for blocks and injured more than 200, officials say.

Two people died and more than 80 were hurt when at least 140 vehicles collided on a Texas highway in dense fog.

Fourteen people died and nine were injured after a pick-up truck left the road and crashed into trees in rural southern Texas, authorities said today.

Investigators said about 300 rounds were fired during a shoot-out across the Rio Grande between US law enforcement officers and suspected drug runners.

An air ambulance crashed shortly after takeoff from a US airport, killing all five people on board.

A small plane crashed into a house bordering a golf course in suburban Austin, Texas, and burst into flames, killing the six people aboard. Three people inside the luxury two-story home escaped unharmed.