Weather reckoning: State of emergency declared after storm

At least 20 homes were destroyed or heavily damaged and eight people were taken to hospital in the wake of a severe storm ripping through part of Western Virginia, in the United States.

A state of emergency was declared to help the authorities respond to the devastation caused throughout areas near Lynchburg and Danville.

A tree which crashed into one home in Chesterfield Country was said to have narrowly missed a three-year-old boy, while a police officer was struck by a motorist while trying to divert traffic in Lynchburg.