Two dead as hurricane batters US coast

AT least two people have died in North Carolina as Hurricane Irene battered the east coast, US officials said.

One man died of a heart attack while boarding up his windows, while another crashed his car into a tree, said Tom Mather, a public affairs officer with the North Carolina emergency management office.

AN 11-year-old boy has died after Hurricane Irene blew a tree on to a two-story apartment building in Newport News, Virginia.

The child was pinned under the tree for nearly two-and-a-half hours before he was pronounced dead at the scene, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

Neighbours told WAVY-TV that the boy’s mother and a baby were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom at the time of the tree’s impact.

As the woman fled the apartment clutching the infant, she screamed, “Where is my baby, where is my baby?”

Firefighters used a crane to remove the tree from the building.

The mother and infant were unhurt, the report said.

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