Tornado ripped an infant
from its mother's arms, and has killed thirteen people in a city on the
US-Mexico border.
The tornado swept through
the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna, flipping over cars and tearing down
homes.
The 13 dead included three
babies, while hundreds of people were injured. In Texas, 12 people were
reported missing in flash flooding.
The baby was also missing
after the twister tore the child's carrier from her mother's hands and sent it
flying, said Victor Zamora, interior secretary of the state of Coahuila.
In Ciudad Acuna, at least
300 people are being treated at local hospitals, and up to 200 homes had been
completely destroyed, officials said.
"There's nothing
standing, not walls, not roofs," said Edgar Gonzalez, a spokesman for the
city government.
Rescue workers dug through
the rubble of damaged homes in a race to find victims. The twister hit a
seven-block area, which Mr Zamora described as "devastated".
Photos from the scene
showed cars with their hoods torn off, resting upended against single-storey
houses. One car's frame was bent around the gate of a house.
A bus was seen flipped and
crumpled on a road.
Mexican President Enrique
Pena Nieto said he planned to travel to Acuna later with officials from
government agencies.
A spokesman for the
National Meteorological Service said it was the strongest tornado for at least
15 years in Mexico.
Calamity, sad
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