Tornadoes in the US kill 20

Updated 10.56 Sun Mar 04 2007

Keywords: Georgia, George Bush, coast guard, Tornado

Tornadoes across the southern US have killed at least 20 people.

The tornadoes killed nine people in Georgia, where a hospital was hit, and 10 people in two southern Alabama towns, officials said.

The tornadoes killed nine people in Georgia, where a hospital was hit, and 10 people in two southern Alabama towns, officials said

The Coast Guard have reported six people missing after their 23-foot (7-metre) vessel began taking on water in stormy seas off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

President George Bush is set to visit the areas stricken by the violent weather to offer his condolences.

He said: "I go down knowing full well I'll be seeing people who's lives have been turned upside down by the tornadoes. I'll do my very best to comfort them."

The powerful storms, which levelled scores of homes while flipping cars into the air and leaving thousands stranded without power, also killed a young girl in a mobile home in Missouri, the officials said.

In Georgia, two died in the town of Americus when the Sumter Regional Hospital was hit by a tornado, and six died, including two children, in hard-hit Baker County.

The ninth fatality was in Taylor County, a north of Americus, said state emergency management official Michael Parker.