Tornado hits downtown Atlanta, at least 9 hurt

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A tornado struck the heart of downtown Atlanta on Friday night, injuring several people and damaging numerous buildings, including the roof of the Georgia Dome as thousands watched a college basketball game, the city's mayor and witnesses said.

Nine people were taken to hospitals, one in serious condition, as a result of the heavy storm, police said.

Police evacuated the multi-story Omni Hotel, which shares a building with the CNN Center, after high winds smashed many windows and scattered debris including furniture into the street below.

Winds also broke some windows at the CNN Center, the television news network's global headquarters, and damaged part of its library, CNN said.

The storm hit the most prominent section of downtown Atlanta, which includes major attractions such as CNN, the Georgia Dome, the Georgia World Congress Center, the Georgia Aquarium and the new World of Coca-Cola that are clustered around Centennial Olympic Park, which was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

"We are doing everything in our power to respond to what we now know was a tornado that came through," Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin told a news conference. She said the state-run Georgia Emergency Management Agency confirmed the tornado.

Officials temporarily halted the game between Mississippi State and the University of Alabama at the Georgia Dome as high winds damaged the roof, sparking alarm and causing a large monitor hanging high above the court to sway ominously.

A later game in the same stadium was postponed.