Severe thunderstorms packing tornadoes and grapefruit-sized hail left a path of destruction across six Midwest states in United States, killing 19 people.

Nineteen deaths were reported in western Tennessee, including a family of four. In Missouri, strong winds were blamed for at least three deaths. A clothing store collapsed in southern Illinois, killing one man and injuring several others.

In Tennessee, eight people died near Newbern in Dyer County and seven in neighboring Gibson County, local emergency officials said.

A twister carved a path through a cluster of homes near the Jimmy Dean Foods plant north of Newbern, Tennessee, where several victims died. The plant, which makes breakfast sausages and other food products, was also damaged, a security guard said.

In Fayette County, Tennessee, just east of Memphis, a home was thrown from its foundation, a grain silo was destroyed and a mobile home overturned, The Tennessean reported.

The National Weather Service in Memphis preliminarily reported tornadoes in five counties in western Tennessee Dyer, Carroll, Haywood, Gibson and Fayette and officials said the storms caused extensive damage.

In Missouri, strong winds were blamed for at least three deaths. A 42-year-old man was killed when winds knocked over his mobile home near Circle City, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said. A second death was reported in Braggadocio, Missouri, in Pemiscot County, the state emergency management office said, but no details were available.

Another man was killed when a tree fell on him as he walked along a trail in Castlewood State Park near Ballwin, Missouri, in St. Louis County, a spokeswoman for St. Louis County police told the Post-Dispatch.

A Kentucky county declared a state of emergency early yesterday after rescue workers struggled to get to rural areas because of power lines and trees that blocked roadways.

Half a dozen tornadoes and grapefruit-sized hail were reported in northeast Arkansas, where about half of the town of Marmaduke had evacuated because of gas leaks and other concerns, police said.

Severe thunderstorms also struck Indianapolis as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert that was part of the NCAA's Final Four weekend. Concertgoers scrambled for cover as tornado sirens sounded and sheets of heavy rain lashed the sidewalks and streets. Meteorologists were trying to confirm reports of a tornado downtown.

(China Daily April 4, 2006)