At least 114 people were killed and several hundreds injured when a tornado devastated parts of eastern India on Tuesday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) and officials said.
PTI also said some 500 others were missing after the tornado struck the adjoining states of Orissa and West Bengal.
Around 80 people were killed and hundreds injured when the twister, with a wind speed of 500 kilometers (310 miles) an hour, slammed into a crowded district of coastal West Bengal.
The news agency said the tornado devastated five villages in the West Bengal district of Midnapore.
According to state Relief Minister Satyaranjan Mahato an estimated 1,000 people were injured.
Mahato said 8,000 others were affected by the tornado which hit the villages, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of the state capital Calcutta.
He said nearly 800 concrete buildings and houses, mostly tin-roofed, were destroyed and that many of the victims were crushed to death in the villages.
Efforts were being made to restore telecommunication and power cables which were snapped by the tornado, which hit the region around 2:00 p.m., he said.
``We still do not have a clear picture of the disaster because the communication lines are down,'' Mahato told AFP.
PTI said the tornado also killed 25 people and injured 60 more in a cluster of villages in the bordering state of Orissa, adding that 16 of the victims were children who were crushed to death when their school collapsed.
The search for more victims had been hampered by torrential rains following the tornado in the state's Balasore district.
An Indian Airlines Boeing-737 carrying 114 people made an emergency landing late Tuesday in the state capital of Bubaneswar following the tornado, the United News of India (UNI) said.
UNI said the state-run passenger aircraft, on a domestic flight, was ``severely damaged'' by lightning strikes in mid-air.
Indian leaders, meanwhile, offered their condolences.
President Kocharil Narayanan said he was shocked by the disaster.
``I am deeply distressed to learn the death and devastation caused by the tornado in West Bengal and Orissa. I extend my heartfelt sympathies to all those who have suffered bereavement and damage,'' he said in a presidential statement.
India's new Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee offered his condolences to relatives of those killed and called the destruction ``most distressing.''
West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu said relief operations had been launched in Midnapore.
Tornadoes and floods are common on India's eastern coast.