A police officer was shot and killed in Kansas while searching for a suspect in a drive-by shooting.

Authorities in Kansas have identified three individuals out of six heads and numerous other human body parts found in a truck at a medical waste centre, including at least one man who was to have been cremated.

A series of tornados today swept through the midwest United States, killing as many as 19 people and leaving a path of destruction a quarter-mile wide in some places.