WASHINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A massive tornado swept through a town in Kansas, in central United States, Friday night, killing at least nine people in the state and injuring over 60 others, U.S. media reported Saturday.

    "All my downtown is gone. My home is gone. My staff's homes are gone," city administrator Steve Hewitt of Greensburg, in the southwest of Kansas, said Saturday.

    The dead included eight in Kiowa County, where Greensburg is located, and one in nearby Stafford County, according to Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General's Department.

    Hewitt said 95 percent of the town was destroyed or heavily damaged by the tornado, measuring up to one mile (1.6 km) wide and as strong as 165 mph (about 266 kph). The City Hall, the high school and the junior high school were destroyed. A hospital in the town, The Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, partially collapsed, trapping 30 people inside with minor injuries who were later rescued, CNN reported.

    Hewitt said a mandatory evacuation was ordered.

    By Saturday morning, the town with some 1,600 residents was empty, and hundreds of residents were taken to shelters set up in schools and other facilities in nearby towns.

    U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison has spoken with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who has declared a disaster emergency for Kiowa County.

    Rescue workers were sent to Greensburg, and state emergency management officials said the Kansas National Guard has dispatched40 troops to the town to help with security. In addition, hazardous materials teams were sent into Greensburg to look at several overturned rail cars.

    Officials said authorities were trying to account for all the residents of the town, and did not have an exact count of the injured.

    The town was hit by two smaller tornadoes after the larger twister. Three small tornadoes reportedly touched down in rural southwestern Illinois late Friday, with no reports of injuries or damage so far, and two tornadoes hit in Oklahoma, damaging some houses.

    The peak tornado season in the United States begins in March and ends in early July, and on average about 70 people are killed each year by tornadoes in the country.