Three days of severe spring storms have left 22 people dead in the US south, with the Carolinas the latest states to take a battering¹ as they move east.

美国南部连续三日遭受春季风暴的袭击，造成22人死亡，目前该风暴正向东部克罗来纳州移动。

Four deaths were reported in North Carolina. A tornado²（龙卷风） destroyed a church near Bonneau, in South Carolina, though six people caught inside were unharmed.

The entire Washington DC metropolitan³ area has been put under tornado watch.

While tornadoes⁴ formed in the south, much of the damage there was attributed to high winds.

The warning by the US National Weather Service for the Washington area also applies to counties in both Virginia and Maryland.

Trees and power lines have been felled by the storms which have torn roofs off houses and scattered⁵ tractor-trailers across roads.

Alabama and Arkansas each reported seven deaths, with two in Oklahoma, one in Mississippi and one in storm-related wildfires in Texas.

Details were not immediately available of the deaths in North Carolina.

A mechanic at a tyre shop in the state capital, Raleigh, said he had taken shelter in his truck while co-workers squeezed into an interior room when the storm hit.

"It was one hell of a storm," Bryan Jackson told Reuters news agency.

"I started to see the roof vibrate（振动） and then the roof separated and it was gone."

The area south of Raleigh city centre was littered with snapped telephone poles, downed wires, broken glass and roofing debris（碎片，残骸） .