1 killed, 28 injured in Illinois when theater roof collapses during storms

April 1 (UPI) -- One person was killed and 28 others injured when the roof of a theater collapsed during a heavy metal rock concert late Friday in northwestern Illinois, fire officials said.

Of those injured in the incident at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, Ill., five were hospitalized with severe injuries and 18 sustained "moderate" injuries, Belvidere Fire Chief Shawn Schadle told reporters.

The city of 25,000, located about 70 miles northwest of Chicago, had been placed under a tornado warning at 7:45 p.m. on Friday evening amid an outbreak of severe weather across Illinois and the Central United States, and only 10 minutes later authorities received their first emergency call, he said.

"About 260 people were inside the theater at the time of the roof collapse, and we initiated large-scale response involving numerous agencies," Schadle said.

An emergency triage center was set up at the fire station, located across the street from the theater, while bystanders pitched in to help rescue concert attendees.

One Twitter user posted what appeared to be video of people inside the theater desperately attempting to remove debris which had fallen from ceiling, apparently onto concertgoers.

The death metal band Morbid Angel was playing at the show. A message on the band's Facebook page said the musicians were "sheltering in place" due to a tornado at the venue, adding, "Right now our focus is making sure everyone in the venue tonight is ok and gets home."

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker acknowledged the disaster in a Twitter post, stating that all available resources were being directed to the scene.

Nearly all of Illinois was placed under severe weather alerts Friday evening as high winds ripped through the area. Tornado warnings were posted for the Chicago area and northwestern Indiana around 8 p.m., with wind gusts of up to 75 mph recorded in Valparaiso, Ind., the National Weather Service said.

Severe wind damage was also reported in central Indiana. More than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power in Indiana and Illinois by early Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us.

Elsewhere in the Central United States, at least five people were killed in Arkansas when a series of devastating tornadoes tore through the state late Friday.