Death toll now 6 after tornadoes hit Illinois

                   
An emergency official says the death toll from a string of tornadoes in central and southern Illinois has now reached six.               

Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency says the latest death also occurred Sunday in Massac County in far southern Illinois, where she reported two other deaths earlier. She says she does not have any further details.                

The Emergency Management Agency confirmed earlier that one person died in the central Illinois community of Washington, where a tornado destroyed several blocks of houses.                  
Also, the county coroner in Washington County in southern Illinois said that two people died in the town of New Minden, about 50 miles southeast of St. Louis. The victims were an elderly man and his sister who died when a tornado struck their farmhouse.                       


AP