BRASILIA, Brazil  (AFP) — A tornado killed at least five people and injured more than 400 as it destroyed most of a town in southern Brazil, authorities said Saturday.

The twister on Friday overturned cars and damaged homes in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, in Parana state, the local weather service reported.

It killed five people and injured 432, the Parana state government said. Two others are missing, but this number could rise, it said.

Winds in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, population 14,000, reached between 180 and 250 kilometres per hour (110 and 155 miles per hour), Parana’s environmental technology and monitoring agency said.

Civil Defence officials said 80 per cent of the town is now destroyed. Images on social media show homes razed by the violent weather.

“It is a war scene,” Fernando Schunig, head of the Parana Civil Defence agency, told the news outlet G1.

He said the likelihood of more fatalities is high because the twister hit right in the centre of the town.

“When these events hit an urban area, the damage is major. It is very lethal,” Schunig said.

The governor of Parana, Ratinho Junior, said on X that “security forces are on alert, mobilised and monitoring the cities affected by the severe storms.”

An alert for dangerous storms was in effect for all of Parana as well as the southern states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, according to weather authorities.