A tornado has ripped through central Florida, destroying about 60 homes and injuring eight people.

Cars and mobile homes have damaged

Roofs were torn off houses, cars overturned and 53 mobile homes have been demolished.

Christmas tree ornaments were strewn across roads along with personal belongings and twisted aluminum siding.

Worst hit were the areas of Winter Haven and Haines City.

The two towns were then swamped by severe thunderstorms and there has been flooding in the Tampa Bay area 130km further south.

Damage to property is being exacerbated by flooding

In other parts of the state, poor drainage ditches left some neighbourhoods under several feet of water.

One elderly resident even had to be evacuated by boat.

The twister was part of a group of severe thunderstorms in the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and central Florida.

They have been causing flooding in lowland areas and disrupting power supplies.

The US National Weather Centre has issued a number of warnings about high winds, rough seas and thunderstorms in the Florida area.
 

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