At least six people have been killed and 100 injured after a tornado a mile wide tore through Texas leaving a wake of destruction in its trail.

The worst affected city was Grabury, home to 8,000 residents, where all of the deaths occurred, and authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Around 100 homes were destroyed in the city which is 70 miles west of Dallas.

Residents told how the roofs of homes swirled through the air and boat docks were ripped up as giant hailstones the size of baseballs pounded the streets.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds said around 28 people were taken to the city’s hospital where 14 were admitted for treatment. Two were transferred to a hospital in Fort Worth, around 35 miles to the north east.

Of the bodies found, Sheriff Deeds said: “I’ve had information that people were found in homes. They were hard hit those homes. They were collapsed, destroyed.”

He added the total of dead could climb as crews pick through the rubble of shattered homes.

So far 14 people are unaccounted for but Sheriff Deeds said it was unclear if they were missing or had gone away from the region.

Matt Zavadsky, spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare, whose company sent three ambulances and a medical bus from its Fort Worth base to Granbury, said some 100 people were injured.

Officers are now going house-to-house  looking for residents trapped in the rubble of demolished homes.

One resident, Elizabeth Tovar, 25, said she rode out the tornado with her husband and sister as she clutched her 9-month-old daughter.

She told : “We heard the winds whipping and glass smashing everywhere. I felt like a long time and when things died down I looked up and saw that the roof was gone.”

Eric Martinez, a cook at a restaurant in Lake Granbury, said he saw several homeowners’ boat docks “just get torn apart”.

“The boat docks just flew off, and they’re actually gone,” Mr Martinez said, adding that the boards and other debris landed in some gardens.

The restaurant did not appear to sustain any damage, but cars parked outside had dents from large hailstones, he said.

Donna Martin, a barmaid in Granbury, said she was watching the clouds circulate in the sky when the tornado sirens went off. She said baseball-size hail also pounded the area.

The tornado spawned a second twister that tore through Cleburne, a courthouse city of about 30,000 about 25 miles southeast of Granbury, there were no deaths but several people were injured.

Another tornado hit the small town of Millsap. Parker County Judge Mark Kelley said roof damage was reported to several houses and a barn was destroyed, but no injuries were reported.

The National Weather Service said a tornado watch would remain in effect for more than 30 counties until early Thursday morning.

Texas Tornado Video

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