Dozens hurt in Mississippi tornado

Hours earlier a storm hit homes in nearby Missouri

A tornado has swept through a town in Mississippi, smashing stores filled with Christmas shoppers and injuring up to 50 people, two of them critically.

Vehicles were overturned, roofs torn off buildings and the power supply knocked out as the tornado struck the town of Newton on Thursday afternoon.

I saw the glass break at the front of the store and the ceiling move towards the back where I was working

Shop employee
Denise Smith

The tornado lasted only five minutes, officials said, but Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove declared a state of emergency for the area.

Emergency crews from six surrounding counties were sent to the town and struggled to restore power to Newton's 6,800 inhabitants overnight.

Peeled back

''There's a lot of devastation and chaos," said Amy Carruth, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

"The roofs of the stores are pretty much gone and all the glass is broken out."

One Wal-Mart discount department store bore the brunt of the storm, its metal walls peeled back by the high winds.

"I saw the glass break at the front of the store and the ceiling move towards the back where I was working,'' said employee Denise Smith.

Most of the casualties suffered relatively minor injuries such as cuts.

The storm was tracking east through central and south-west Alabama towards central Georgia late on Thursday, according to meteorologists.