One of the strongest tornadoes ever recorded has ripped through Oklahoma City, killing at least 51 people - 20 of them children - and destroying everything in its path.
The ferocious tornado flattened entire neighbourhoods in the southern suburb of Moore with winds of up to 200 mph, rendering thousands of people homeless, leaving buildings on fire and landing a direct blow to a school.
Several children were pulled alive from the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School after the devastating, mile-wide tornado reduced the building to heaps of rubble and twisted metal.
Rescuers passed the children down a "human chain" to get them to medical personnel for treatment.
A second elementary school, Briarwood, was also hit but did not appear to have sustained casualties. Moore's hospital was also badly damaged.
Emergency crews pledged to work through the night across the city to look for survivors, amid reports that another, smaller, storm was on its way to the town of 55,000 people.
Officials at two hospitals said they were treating more than 140 patients, including around 70 children. Dozens of people were said to be in a critical condition.
A state of emergency has already been declared for 16 Oklahoma counties due to the tornado threat on Sunday, and added five more on Monday after the storms hit the state capital.
The National Weather Service gave the twister a preliminary EF-4 classification - on a five-point scale - with winds up to 200mph.
Weather service meteorologist Kelsey Angle said fewer than 1% of all tornadoes ever reach EF-4 or EF-5 levels.
The same suburb was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. That storm had the distinction of producing the highest winds ever recorded near the Earth's surface of up to 302 mph.
This part of the country is known as "tornado alley" and residents are trained in how to take shelter. Most towns and cities are equipped with storm sirens that can warn of a coming tornado half an hour before it hits.
Our prayers and our thoughts are with all the Oklahoma families that have been hit hard by this terrible storm.
Source: Sky News
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