Twister kills 13 in Mexico border city

A tornado raged through a city on the US-Mexico border on Tuesday, destroying homes, flinging cars like matchsticks and ripping an infant away from its mother.

At least 13 people were killed, authorities said. In Texas, 12 people were reported missing after the vacation home they were staying in was swept away by rushing floodwaters in a small town popular with tourists.

The baby was also missing after the twister that hit Ciudad Acuna, a city of 125,000 across from Del Rio, Texas, ripped the child’s carrier from the mother’s hands and sent it flying, said Victor Zamora, interior secretary of the northern state of Coahuila. Rescue workers dug through the rubble of damaged homes in a race to find victims. The twister hit a seven-block area, which Zamora described as “devastated.” 

Mayor Evaristo <g data-gr-id="21">Perez Rivera</g> said 300 people were being treated at local hospitals, and up to 200 homes had been completely destroyed. “There’s nothing standing, not walls, not roofs,” said Edgar Gonzalez, a spokesman for the city government, describing some of the destroyed homes in a 3-square kilometer (1 square mile) stretch.

By midday, 13 people were confirmed dead, 10 adults and three infants. At least five people were unaccounted for.

Gonzalez said last night that rescuers were looking for four members of a family who <g data-gr-id="25">were</g> believed missing, adding that there were still areas of rubble that remained to be searched.