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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Parts of Arkansas were battered with tornadoes and pelted with softball-sized hail Sunday in storms that destroyed several homes and left dozens of people injured. Severe thunderstorms also raced across parts of Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana, where concertgoers in downtown Indianapolis were sent scrambling for cover.

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A tornado reported near the northeastern Arkansas town of Marmaduke sent at least 45 people to Arkansas Methodist Medical Center at Paragould, said a spokesman who added that many of the injuries were minor. Authorities closed off all access to Marmaduke, where damage was reportedly very heavy.

It was one of a half dozen tornadoes reported in the northeast part of the state; state emergency managment officials reported at least two other injuries. A half-dozen houses were reported destroyed in Lawrence County, said Anthony Cavallucci of the National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tenn.

Reports of hail and storm damage were widespread across northern and eastern Arkansas, but Newton Skiles, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office at North Little Rock, said the softball-sized hailstones fell mostly in scattered rural areas where there were few homes or vehicles to be damaged.

As the storms swept east, tornadoes were reported in several west Tennessee counties, causing some injuries, knocking out power and damaging buildings, officials said.

In Indianapolis, the storm hit with heavy wind and rain that shook downtown office towers as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert.

Weather service radar tracked a powerful thunderstorm with a possible tornado through downtown Indianapolis, weather service meteorologist John Ogren said, but officials would not be able to confirm whether the storm was a tornado until they inspect damage on Monday.

Earlier the line of storms swept through central and southern Indiana, causing widespread damage. There were no immediate reports of injuries but officials were just beginning to piece together the details Sunday night, Ogren said.

“We’ve got such a pile (of damage reports) I’ve really not had a chance to see everything,” he said.

Utility crews were working late Sunday night to some 57,000 Cinergy customers across Indiana, said spokeswoman Angeline Protogere.

Weather service personnel took shelter for about 10 minutes as high winds kicked up debris against the agency’s building at the Indianapolis airport, and the downtown tower housing the Indianapolis bureau of The Associated Press shook badly enough to knock a clock off the wall.

In Illinois, a tornado touched down in Fairview Heights east of St. Louis, causing damage to at least two stores, according to a police department dispatcher. A building, possibly a clothing store, collapsed and may have caused some injuries, Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson said.

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“We’ve got reports of some damage in Taylorville and also a few other areas, including Monroe and Jefferson counties,” she said, adding that most of the reports were from the southern portion of the state.

A trailer park on Springfield’s northeast side sustained damage from strong winds, and authorities said two women sustained minor injuries, The State Journal-Register in Springfield reported.

George Preckwinkle, the owner of several hardware stores in central Illinois, said two-thirds of the roof of his Taylorville store was ripped off. Three employees were closing the store when they saw plants flying past the front window. That is when they went to the bathroom and locked themselves in.

“That’s pretty well gone, two-thirds of the store is soaked,” he said.

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Associated Press Writers Charles Wilson in Indianapolis and John O’Connor in Taylorville, Ill., contributed to this report.

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