A tornado killed at least two people and destroyed buildings on Sunday in the US state of Oklahoma, officials and local reports said, with forecasters warning of more to come.

The twister in the town of Quapaw was one of several triggered by a major storm front moving through the Midwest and South.

"There have been numerous homes and buildings damaged and some destroyed," Keli Cain of the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency told AFP.

She cited local emergency officials as saying that a fire station was destroyed and there was damage to the northern part of the town.

There were no immediate further details about the two dead.

The National Weather Service warned of a severe weather threat, saying there was a "high risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes this evening and overnight across southwest and central Arkansas."

A moderate risk prevailed from much of Arkansas northward into southern Missouri.

"Tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds are possible!" the weather service said.