Tornado hits Atlanta, injures 27

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Workers in Atlanta of the U.S. state of Georgia were cleaning up streets Saturday morning after a tornado swept through the city's downtown the night before and left at least 27 people injured.

Although tens of thousands of people were in the path of the storm -- many in town for a major college basketball tournament --there were no known deaths and just one life-threatening injury Friday night, police said.

At least 27 people -- one of them a firefighter -- were treated at hospitals, mostly for minor cuts, scrapes and bruises.

About 13,000 residents in the downtown area were without power Saturday morning. A statement from the mayor's office said at least 20 of the historic homes in downtown Atlanta were damaged or destroyed by the storm.

Witnesses compared downtown Atlanta to a war zone Friday night, with glass from high-rise windows littering the streets along with roofing debris and fallen trees and branches.

Just nine hours after the Friday night storm, another severe weather system blew through metro Atlanta, and more were off to the west and headed for the city.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Saturday morning for an area just east of Atlanta.