Severe storms kill at least seven people in state of Arkansas

Severe storms that ripped through the central US left at least seven people dead in the state of Arkansas, officials said Tuesday, as flash flood warnings prompted mass evacuations in neighboring Missouri.

Strong storm winds and torrential downpours have slammed a swath of central US states in recent weeks, leaving river levels precariously high.

Authorities Tuesday had begun evacuating 1,000 people along the swollen Black River near the Missouri town of Poplar Bluff, home to some 17,000 people.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood warning for three counties in the southwest of the state. "The levee along the Black River from Poplar Bluff... remains compromised in several locations," the NWS warned in an advisory. "The river is near its crest... which is maximizing the potential of an eventual failure of the levee system."

Flash flood warnings were also issued by the NWS in Arkansas, as a tornado that slammed the central town of Vilonia late Monday that has claimed the lives of four people, Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Renee Presslar confirmed to AFP.