UPDATE - Death toll from tornadoes that ravage US rises to 18

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES HEADLINE, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Islam Dogru and Darren Lyn

NEW YORK (AA) - The death toll from tornadoes that ravage the US rose to 18 with dozens injured, according to officials on Saturday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said more than 57 tornadoes have been reported in the past 24 hours in a wide area covering eight states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Tennessee, Illinois and Wisconsin.

While the tornadoes claimed seven lives in Tennessee, five in Arkansas, three in Indiana, and one person each in Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency amid severe storm warnings.

In regions hit by tornadoes and storms, houses and workplaces were heavily damaged, İt also caused severe damage to electric poles.

The NWS also confirmed that the tornado that hit Arkansas state’s capital of Little Rock was a “high-end” EF3 with maximum winds estimated at 164 miles per hour (265 kilometers per hour).

One person was killed and dozens injured as a tornado caused the collapse of the roof of a concert theatre in Illinois. Around 260 people were in the theater for a heavy metal concert, according to media reports.

At least 28 people, including five who were severely injured, were hospitalized.

The NWS has issued storm warnings for Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.

Around 530,000 households were left without power in parts of the US, including more than 200,000 in the state of Ohio, according to “PowerOutage.us,” a website that tracks power outages.

The latest round of severe weather comes one week after a series of deadly storms ripped through the southeast with one tornado killing at least 26 people in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.