Oklahoma Tornado: Children 'Drowned In School'

Seven children drowned in a pool of water at an elementary school as they sheltered from the monster tornado which hit Oklahoma, officials have said.

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was flattened after it took a direct hit from the mile-wide twister.

The strength of the storm tore off the roof of the school and knocked down walls.

Several students were found alive in the rubble and passed down a human chain of rescue workers to a triage centre in the car park.

Oklahoma City Police Department told Sky News that progress had been slow through the night as rescue workers were careful not to collapse the structure further on potential survivors.

Photographer Sue Ogrocki described how police and firefighters had used bars to try to lift up a large chunk of a wall as they pulled children out one-by-one from underneath.

She said that the survivors "looked dazed and others seemed terrified" as they emerged.

It is believed that many pupils had been evacuated to a nearby church before the storm hit, but some children remained inside the school.

Moore City Mayor Glenn Lewis told Sky News: "Unfortunately it is one of the older schools in the city and the structure was just not built as well as it should have been."

He added that a total of five schools were hit which were all "full of kids" because it struck within teaching hours.

An official from the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office told NBC News that seven children had drowned at Plaza Towers.

Anxious parents were forced to stand by and listen in hope as the names of the survivors were called out from a man with a megaphone.

They held a vigil throughout the night while workers scrambled to find anyone still alive.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said that "hearts are broken" for parents looking for their children.

James Rushing, who lives across the street, ran to the school his five-year-old foster son Aiden attends when he heard reports of the approaching tornado.

He believed he would be safer there but said: "About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart."

The Medical Examiner's Office said that at least 24 people have been killed, including nine children.

Surviving children were being taken to a church where worried parents waited, some comforting the young siblings of those still unaccounted for.