Texas-Mexico tornado death toll reaches 10

San Antonio, Apr 26: A tornado killed 10 people, injured at least 80 and left hundreds homeless when it struck along the US-Mexico border overnight and cut a four-mile swath of damage, officials said.

Seven people were killed when the storm ripped through Eagle Pass, Texas, and three people died in Piedras Negras, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande.

''Our hospital is just being overrun with people,'' Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster said after a night of frantic searches for the dead and injured.

The town of about 20,000 on the Rio Grande, 140 miles west of San Antonio, has only one hospital. Foster said about 80 people were injured including three who were airlifted to San Antonio.

Five of the Eagle Pass dead were in a single residence, according to the mayor. A neighbour said they were members of a family whose mobile home was demolished.

All 1,500 residents of the Rosita Valley community south of Eagle Pass, where the tornado did the worst damage, were evacuated, said Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda.

Between 250 and 300 people from the Texas community are living in shelters and there are ''more coming all the time,'' he said.

In Mexico, rescue officials said the army was searching for survivors and victims.

''Hundreds of houses are damaged, 700 or 800 people are in shelters and we've begun looking for people who may be trapped in the rubble,'' spokesman Fernando Horta of Coahuila state Civil Protection said by telephone.

Foster said the tornado obliterated the main Catholic church in Piedras Negras.

''There were two orphanages within proximity of that church.

Our concern is for the young people who were in those orphanages,'' he said.

Aranda said wide sections of the stricken area had yet to be searched.

''We're doing a search and rescue operation with several police agencies, Border Patrol, National Guard, over 100 manpower,'' he said.

Many of the people in Rosita Valley have little beyond their homes and belongings and often lack insurance, Aranda said.

He said he planned to ask Texas Gov Rick Perry, who was to tour the area later on Wednesday, for state assistance to the victims.

Reuters>