Death toll from Joplin tornado rises to 141: officials

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The death toll from the May 22 Joplin, Missouri tornado has risen to 141, city officials said on Sunday.

Lynn Iliff Onstot, public information officer for Joplin, said the city had identified three new victims who died from injuries sustained as a result of the twister.

The massive F-5 tornado cut a six-mile swath through the southwest Missouri city just as residents were sitting down to Sunday dinner. It was the deadliest single tornado in the United States since 1947.

Tornadoes have battered the country this spring, killing more than 500 people, mostly in the south. A twister even struck Massachusetts, where tornadoes are rare, last week, killing four people.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Source: Reuters US Online Report Domestic News