The twister on Friday evening flipped cars like toys and wrecked buildings in Rio Bonito do Iguacu, a town of 14,000 people in Parana state, officials said.

The storm lasted only minutes but hit with hail and ferocious winds swirling at up to 250 km per hour (155 miles per hour). Aerial photos show the town largely obliterated, with wrecked buildings and debris everywhere.

"It destroyed everything. It destroyed the town, houses, schools. What will become of us?" Roselei Dalcandon said as she stood by a pile of rubble that used to be her shop.

The tornado killed at least six people and injured around 750, the Parana state government said. One person is reported missing.

Civil Defense officials said 90 percent of the town suffered damage.

Images on social media showed many homes with their roofs ripped off or totally destroyed.

Rescue teams searched through piles of rubble looking for survivors or bodies. A shelter was set up in a nearby town.

"It is a war scene," Fernando Schunig, head of the Parana Civil Defense agency, told the news outlet G1.

He said the likelihood of more fatalities is high because the twister hit the center of the town.

"When these events hit an urban area, the damage is major. It is very lethal," Schunig said.

Other cities in Parana and neighboring states were also hit by strong winds, storms and hail from a violent weather pattern sweeping through the region.

Last year southern Brazil suffered severe flooding that left more than 200 people dead and two million displaced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

It was one of the worst natural disasters in the recent history of Brazil and experts say global warming played a role in the floods.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday a team of ministers and disaster relief experts are headed to the town hit by the tornado.

An alert for dangerous storms was in effect for all of Parana as well as Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, according to weather authorities.

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