US storms death toll rises to 48

Crews searched today for more victims of deadly tornadoes that killed at least 48 people and injured hundreds more in the US.

Twisters tore across four states, ripping off a shopping mall roof, demolishing mobile homes and blowing apart warehouses.

The victims were 24 people in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and four in Alabama, emergency officials said.

Among those killed were parents who died with their 11-year-old child in Atkins, Arkansas, about 60 miles north-west of Little Rock.

Ray Story tried to get his 70-year-old brother, Bill Clark, to a hospital after the storms levelled his mobile home in Macon County, about 60 miles north-east of Nashville. He died as Mr Story and his wife tried to navigate debris-strewn roads in their pickup truck, they said.

"He never had a chance," Nova Story said. "I looked him right in the eye and he died right there in front of me."

The twisters, which also slammed Mississippi, were part of a rare spasm of winter weather that raged across the US's midsection at the end of the Super Tuesday primaries in several states.

As the extent of the damage quickly became clear, candidates including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee paused in their victory speeches to remember the victims.

Before dawn, the system moved on to Alabama, bringing heavy rains and gusty winds, causing several injuries in counties north-west of Birmingham. An apparent tornado damaged eight homes in Walker County.

North-east of Nashville, a spectacular fire visible for miles erupted at the Columbia Gulf Natural Gas pumping station, sending flames shooting 400-500ft in the air, said Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Donnie Smith.

No one was killed in the blast, said Brent Archer, a spokesman for Houston-based Nisource Gas Transmission, adding that the plant apparently took a direct hit from the tornado.

Eight students were trapped in a battered dormitory at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, until they were finally freed.

Tornadoes had hit the campus in the past, and students knew the drill when they heard sirens, said Union University President David Dockery, adding later that at least two dormitories were destroyed.

Well after nightfall would-be rescuers went through shattered homes in Atkins, a town of 3,000 near the Arkansas River. Around them, power lines snaked along streets and a deep-orange pickup truck rested on its side. A navy blue Ford Mustang with a demolished front end was marked with spray paint to show it had been searched.

Outside one damaged home, horses whinnied in the darkness, looking up only when a flashlight reached their eyes. A ranch home stood unscathed across the street from a concrete slab that had supported the house where the family of three died.

In Memphis, high winds collapsed the roof of a Sears store at a mall. Debris that included bricks and air conditioning units was scattered on the parking lot, where about two dozen vehicles were damaged.

A few people north of the mall took shelter under a bridge and were washed away, but they were pulled out of Wolf River with only scrapes, said Steve Cole of the Memphis Police Department.

In Mississippi, Desoto County Sheriff's Department Cmdr Steve Atkinson said a twister shredded warehouses in an industrial park in the city of Southaven, just south of Memphis. He likened the destruction to a bomb going off.

On January 8, tornadoes were reported in Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Two died in the Missouri storms.