Tornadoes overnight leave at least nine dead

(Reuters) - Violent storms ripped across Oklahoma and Arkansas overnight, killing nine people including three children, and cutting a path of destruction through Arkansas's largest city of Little Rock, authorities said on Friday.

Tornadoes killed two people in Oklahoma, both in the small southeastern town of Tushka where the only school was leveled, authorities said.

Seven people were killed in Arkansas as the storms hit early on Friday morning, authorities said. A six-year-old boy was killed in the town of Bald Knob. A father and an 18-month-old girl were dead in Garland County, one person was dead in Pulaski County, and one in St. Francis County, local police and Arkansas state police said.

The storm hit the city of Little Rock hard, killing a mother and her young son, whose age was unknown, according to the Little Rock Police Department. The storm also left numerous trees down and electricity out in large parts of the city.

More storms are expected on Friday to move through Mississippi and Alabama, along with a secondary storm corridor along the Mississippi River valley through eastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, Western Kentucky and southern and perhaps central Illinois, according to Corey Mead, forecaster for the National Storm Prediction Center.

Mead said the storms are expected to bring heavy rainfall with a potential for more tornadoes and large hail. The storms in the secondary corridor are expected to be confined to Friday afternoon and evening, while storms will likely continue overnight in the deep south, moving east across parts of Georgia and the Florida panhandle, Mead said.

Large hail, tornadoes and damaging winds are also possible in eastern Louisiana and the western Carolinas, according to weather.com.

(Reporting by Steve Olafson in Oklahoma City and Suzi Parker in Little Rock; Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune)