Deadly tornado hits southern US

A tornado has killed at least ten people and injured dozens more in Mississippi.

A whirling cloud nearly a mile wide ripped through the centre of the US state, destroying scores of homes and trapping people inside, damaging businesses, blocking highways and knocking out power to thousands.

Five people died in Choctaw County, four in Yazoo County and one in Holmes County, said a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

Governor Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency after the first major US tornado of the year, saying: "It has done huge damage around Yazoo City.

"We have fatalities, a number of people that we're still trying to rescue who are trapped in buildings. But it is a major, significant tornado ... and it did some huge damage and perhaps some fatalities north of here."

The storm system has moved to Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, said Greg Carbin, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.