WASHINGTON, USA - AT least 19 tornados tore across four United States states leaving three people dead in Arkansas, US media reported.

A girl of 15 was killed while sleeping when a tree fell on her room at about 4.30am in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in the south-central part of the country, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on Friday citing police.

Her 10 year old brother, sleeping in the same room, was slightly injured and hospitalised, they said.

Two other people were also killed by the twisters in Arkansas, according to news channel reports.

Tornadoes also struck in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, in a storm system that was headed towards Illinois northeast of Arkansas, ABC television reported.

TV news reports showed images of powerful tornadoes accompanied by heavy rain, generating extensive damage and power outages.

'The roads are hard to get through and some are impassible. There is just a lot of widespread damage,' Sergeant Robert King, a Gladstone, Missouri police spokesman told the Kansas City Star.

The National Weather Service had tornado warnings in effect for much of Arkansas at midday on Friday.