WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- At least seven people have been killed by Hurricane Rita that slammed the US Texas-Louisiana coast on Saturday, news reports said Monday.

    The death toll rose to seven when the five bodies were discovered in an apartment in Beaumont, Texas.

¡¡¡¡The five - a man, a woman and three children - reportedly died of carbon monoxide from a generator they were using when their power was knocked off by the storm.

    In Mississippi, a person was killed when a tornado spawned by the hurricane overturned a mobile home, and in Texas, a man was struck by a falling tree during the storm.

    Before Rita came ashore, two dozen evacuees were killed last Friday when a fire burst out in bus carrying them near Dallas, Texas.

    Rita made landfall in the US Texas-Louisiana coast Saturday morning, hitting refinery towns of Beaumont and Port Arthur of Texas, and Lake Charles of Louisiana. Some 3 million people were evacuated from the storm path.

    Meanwhile, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina has risen to nearly 1,100, and most of the deaths were in Louisiana and Mississippi, which were hit by the storm on Aug. 29. Enditem