Rescuers search rubble in east China after tornado kills 98

The remains of a steel tower are photographed in Funing County, in east China's Jiangsu Province, on Thursday, June 23, 2016, after a tornado hit the area. (Xinhua via AP)

YANCHENG, China -- Rescuers in eastern China searched Friday for survivors of a tornado and hailstorm that killed at least 98 people as it swept over a city's outskirts, destroying buildings, smashing trees and flipping vehicles on their roofs.

The tornado hit a densely populated area of farms and factories Thursday near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, about 800 kilometres south of Beijing.

Jiangsu Governor Shi Taifeng said Friday that the death toll had risen to 98 people, with 800 others injured, according to the official China News Service. Earlier, the state-run Xinhua News Agency had said 200 people were critically injured.

On Friday, rescuers worked to carry injured villagers into ambulances and deliver food and water to others, Xinhua reported, although state broadcaster CCTV said that roads were blocked with trees, downed power lines and other debris. Heavy rain and the possibility of further hailstorms and more tornadoes complicated rescue efforts.

In badly hit Xintu village, survivors grieved over lost relatives and surveyed the damage wrought on their homes.

"The people inside tried to run outside, but the wind was too strong so they couldn't," villager Wang Shuqing told an Associated Press reporter. "My family members were all inside, they all died. The police then came and took the bodies out, I can't bear it."

The disaster has been declared a national-level emergency, and on a trip to Uzbekistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered central government bodies to provide all necessary assistance.

Tents and other emergency supplies were being sent from Beijing, while schools and other facilities were used to shelter survivors, CCTV said.

The network showed people carrying the injured to hospitals, cars and trucks lying upside down, street light poles snapped in half, and steel electricity pylons crumpled and lying on their side. Power and telephone communications were knocked out over a broad area.

"I heard the gales and ran upstairs to shut the windows," Xinhua quoted Xie Litian, 62, as saying. "I had hardly reached the top of the stairs when I heard a boom and saw the entire wall with the windows on it torn away."

The roof then collapsed as he raced downstairs, Xie said. After sheltering in a corner for 20 minutes, he emerged to find the neighbourhood transformed into a wasteland. "It was like the end of the world," he said.

Jiangsu is a coastal province north of Shanghai. Yancheng is an ancient city with more than 8 million people.

The Jiangsu provincial fire and rescue service said on its microblog that the storm was accompanied by hail. Crews were dispatched to evacuate workers and secure chemicals and other potentially dangerous items at a sprawling solar panel factory in a Yancheng suburb, it said. No chemical leaks have been reported, CCTV said.

Photos showed a wrecked three-story school with large trees strewn on its playing field. Its windows had been blown out and its roof and upper floor torn off, along with those of numerous other buildings.

Bodies were shown lying in the open or buried in rubble. At least one hog farm was hit, its livestock covered in bricks and roofing material.

The reports said the tornado struck at about 2:30 p.m. and hit Funing and Sheyang counties on the city's outskirts the hardest, with winds of up to 125 kph.

Tornados occasionally strike southern China during the summer, but rarely with the scale of death and damage caused by the one on Thursday.

This year, southern and eastern China have experienced weeks of torrential rain and storms that have caused widespread flooding and dozens of casualties.

The southern part of the country is hit every year during the May-July monsoon season, but this rainy season has been particularly wet. Water levels in some major rivers have exceeded those of 1998, when China was hit by disastrous floods that affected 180 million people, according to state media reports.

AP writer Christopher Bodeen reported from Beijing.