Storms that spawned dozens of tornadoes killed at least 26 people in cities and towns across the South and Midwest, swept through the Arkansas capital of Little Rock, collapsed the roof of a packed concert hall in Illinois and injured scores of people in Saturday, the Associated Press reports.

Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, uprooted trees and devastated residential areas in a wide swath from north to south.

The dead included at least nine people in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynn, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.

Deaths from the storms that hit Friday into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi.

One person died in Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in the path of a tornado.

Residents of Wynn, a town of about 8,000 people 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke up Saturday to find the high school's roof ripped off and its windows blown out.

Huge trees were downed, uprooted, and many homes and businesses were left without windows or roofs.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee declared a state of emergency and requested help from the National Guard.

US tornado death toll rises to 21

More than 530,000 homes and businesses were without power as of noon Saturday, more than 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

The extensive storm system also sparked wildfires across the southern Plains, with Oklahoma officials reporting nearly 100 separate wildfires Friday.

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