There is one possible fatality and about 12 people were critically injured, said a spokesman for emergency services in the Oklahoma City area. The tornado also hit areas of Oklahoma City and some of its suburbs to the south and southwest.

Police said they expect there to be numerous additional injuries such as broken bones, sprains and cuts.

Tornadoes in states that include Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee and Illinois have already killed 42 people this week.

The tornado touched down in Moore, about 15 miles south of Oklahoma City at about 5:17 p.m. local time (6:17 p.m. EDT). It toppled suburban dwellings like houses of cards, destroyed a bank and a restaurant.

It ripped through large sections of a General Motors Corp. facility, where witnesses said several people were injured. Cars in the plant parking lot were tossed about like toys and video footage from local broadcasters showed car-carrying trucks on fire.

Authorities said they were investigating reports of a bus blown off a highway. A tornado touch-down at Tinker Air Force Base spread debris across runways.

'What I'm seeing is a lot of walking wounded,' said Brian Stanaland, a major in the local fire department.

Fire trucks and rescue vehicles could be seen racing through city streets, and several buildings, homes and apartment complexes were damaged in the tornado.

'The tornado was wedge-shaped. It had all kinds of debris flying around it. You could tell it was hitting houses and stuff,' said Dan Naylor, a mobile home salesman who used to work as a tornado spotter.

The storm that caused the tornado was heading to the east, authorities said. About 14,000 customers were without power, Oklahoma Gas and Electric said.

The tornado brought back painful memories of a series of tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area, including Moore, in May 1999 and killed 44 people. Large sections of Moore were destroyed at the time.

(China Daily May 9, 2003)