At least 15 people have been killed and hundreds of others injured in powerful storms that left a wide trail of destruction in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in the central US.

The latest deadly weather to strike the central US inflicted its worst damage in a region spanning from north of Dallas to the northwest corner of Arkansas.

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said seven deaths were reported in Cooke County near the Oklahoma border, where a Saturday night tornado plowed through a rural area near a mobile home park. Two children were among the dead.

According to Abbott, nearly 100 people were also injured and over 200 homes and structures were destroyed because of the tornado.

“The hopes and dreams of Texas families and small businesses have literally been crushed by storm after storm,” Abbott said.

Storms also left two killed in Oklahoma and five in Arkansas.

A resident of Farmers Branch in Dallas county said he rode out the storm with 40 to 50 people in the bathroom of a truck stop, adding that the storm sheared the roof and walls off the building, mangling metal beams and leaving battered cars in the parking lot.

“A firefighter came to check on us and he said, ‘You’re very lucky,’” AP quoted Hugo Parra as saying, adding “The best way to describe this is the wind tried to rip us out of the bathrooms.”

Elsewhere, a man was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday when a tree fell on him, police said. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenburg confirmed on social media that it was a storm-related death.

The severe weather left tens of thousands of people without power in the region.

Meanwhile, more severe storms were predicted in Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Climate change contributes to the severity of storms around the world. Over 300 tornadoes were recorded in the US in April, the second-highest number of tornadoes in the month on record.

Source: Presstv