BEIJING, Apr 21 (AP) -- A tornado tore apart houses in two towns in eastern China, killing seven people and injuring more than 80 others, a news report said Thursday.

The tornados hit two counties on the outskirts of Yancheng, a city in Jiangsu province northwest of Shanghai, on Wednesday afternoon, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The report said Xinhua reporters who visited the village of Dazhi, one of the hardest-hit areas, found "half of the houses at the village collapsed and the only township hospital crowded with some 60 villagers waiting for treatment."