Deadly tornado sweeps through Alabama - in pictures

In the aftermath of a severe tornado, Kelly Giddens, right, helps University of Alabama law student Daniel Hinton remove belongings from his destroyed home in the Cedar Crest neighbourhood in Tuscaloosa Photograph: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Lalita Gajjar, left, and her son Arpan go through the remains of the family-owned Baymont Inn and Suites hotel after a tornado swept through in Ringgold, Georgia Photograph: Erik S. Lesser/EPA

Parts of Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, is left in ruins Photograph: Marvin Gentry/Reuters

Tiffany Wood stands on the doorstep of what is left of her home after a tornado hit a day earlier in Pleasant Grove, near downtown Birmingham Photograph: Butch Dill/AP

Tuscaloosa department of transportation employee Casey Wallace tries to clear power lines off a road in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Photograph: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Tornadoes overnight left neighbourhoods ruined, including this house which was taken off its foundations in Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama Photograph: Marvin Gentry/Reuters

Mandy Coolidge collects photos from the debris after the tornado hit Pleasant Grove in Birmingham, Alabama Photograph: Butch Dill/AP

Residents survey the destruction after a tornado hit Pratt City near Birmingham Photograph: Butch Dill/AP

Rescue workers attend to an injured man in Pratt City Photograph: Butch Dill/AP

Residents survey the destruction in Pratt City Photograph: Butch Dill/AP

People take in the scale of the storm damage in Tuscaloosa, where many buildings were reduced to rubble Photograph: Dusty Compton/AP

A woman sifts through the destruction of a former office in Tuscaloosa Photograph: Caroline Summers/AP

Rescue workers carry a woman away from the rubble of her home in Phil Campbell, Alabama Photograph: Daniel Giles/AP

A car lies overturned among destroyed buildings in Tuscaloosa Photograph: Dusty Compton/AP

A woman sits on a mattress in her yard as she comforts her granddaughter in Concord, Alabama Photograph: Jeff Roberts/AP

A large tornado sweeps through Limestone County Photograph: Gary Cosby Jr/AP