Tornado wipes out US town

Updated 08.08 Mon May 07 2007

Keywords: destroy, US, Kansas, tornado

A tornado has wiped out most of a town in Kansas, killing ten people.

According to state officials, eight people died in the Greensburg area and two others elsewhere in Kansas.

The National Weather Service classified the tornado as an F-5, the highest category on its scale

An administrator in Greensberg, who lost his home, estimated 95 percent of the town of 1,500 people had been destroyed.

Officials said residents would be allowed to return today to recover what they could.

President George W Bush declared parts of Kansas a disaster area, freeing up federal money to aid in recovery, but added the state would not be defeated by the tornado.

He said: "There's a certain spirit in the midwest of our country. A pioneer spirit that still exists and I'm confident that this community will be rebuilt."

The National Weather Service classified the tornado as an F-5, the highest category on its scale.

The weather service said that the tornado had winds estimated at 205 miles per hour (330 kilometres per hour), and that it carved a track 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometres) wide and 22 miles (35 kilometres) long.

The last tornado that strong killed 36 people in Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.