A boy scout camp was hit by a tornado in the midwestern United States on Wednesday evening, killing four people and injuring 48, a TV report said on Thursday.
The tornado swept the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in Western Iowa, killing three 13-year-old Scouts and a 14-year-old staff member who was also a Scout, Lloyd Roitstein, president of the Boy Scouts of Mid America Council, told CNN.
According to Iowa Public Safety officials, a total of 93 campers and 25 staff were at the camp for a week-long leadership training camp when the tornado struck in the evening. Rescuers were still searching at the ranch on Thursday morning to make sure no more people were injured even though all have been accounted for.
At least 42 of the injured remained in hospital till Thursday morning and 4 others have been airlifted from the camp, said Gene Meyer, Iowa Public Safety Commissioner.
"We were sitting there watching lightning...and we saw it (tornado) come around the end of a bluff toward the entrance of the camp," Rob Logsdon, a 15-year-old staff member at the Scout camp, told CNN. "So we flipped on the siren and the youth staff members ran to the assigned shelters."
"Eight seconds, and the tornado passed. That was like the longest eight seconds I've ever had," camper Ben Karschner said.
Roitstein said that the camp was destroyed by the tornado as "all of the buildings are gone, most of the tents are gone and most of the trees are destroyed."
The storm made landfall at the camp about 3 hours after the National Weather Service had issued a tornado watch for western Iowa and eastern Nebraska.
It also raked Kansas on Wednesday, killing at least two, destroying part of Chapman town and causing extensive damage to the Kansas State University campus.
One victim was found in a yard in the town of Chapman and another outside a mobile home in Soldier town, Kansas authorities said, adding three people who were critically injured have been taken to hospital.
Source:Xinhua
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