THREE DEAD AS TORNADO LEAVES TRAIL OF DAMAGE

A “VIOLENT tornado” has touched down in Jefferson City, causing heavy damage in Missouri’s capital city as severe weather swept across the US state. The tornado caused at least three deaths and left many people trapped in the wreckage of their homes.

Missouri Public Safety confirmed in a tweet that three people were killed in the Golden City area of Barton County, and several injured in the Carl Junction area of Jasper County Area.

Power outages were reported in parts of the city.

Missouri Public Safety tweeted that there was a possibility of more tornadoes and flash flooding. The National Weather Service said it had received 22 reports of tornadoes by late Wednesday, although some of those could be duplicate reporting of the same twister.

One tornado skirted a few kilometres north of Joplin, Missouri, on the eighth anniversary of a tornado that killed 161 people in the city.

Storms have ravaged large parts of the Midwest.

Picture: GETTY/AFP A truck is overturned near the remains of a car repair yard in Jefferson City, Missouri. Inset: Iesha McClain looks over her destroyed home.