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A tornado raged through a city on the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, destroying homes, flinging cars like matchsticks and ripping an infant from a mother's arms. At least 13 people were killed and more than 200 injured, authorities said.

The twister struck not long after daybreak — around the time buses were preparing to take children to school — in Ciudad Acuna, a city of 125,000 across from Del Rio, Texas, said Victor Zamora, interior secretary of the northern state of Coahuila.

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"It hit an area of about seven blocks," Zamora said, describing the neighborhood as "devastated."

The head of Mexico's national civil defense agency, Luis Felipe Puente, told local media that 230 people had been injured and that shelters are being set up.

Rescue workers began digging through the rubble of damaged homes in a race to find more victims.

The twister destroyed homes, upended cars and ripped an infant in a baby carrier from its mother's arms. The child is missing.

Photos from the scene showed cars with their hoods ripped off, resting upended against single-story houses. One car's frame was bent around the gate of a house. A bus was seen flipped and crumpled on a roadway. One car's frame was literally bent around the gate of a house. A bus was seen flipped and crumpled on a roadway.

Residents stand outside their damaged house after a tornado hit the town of Ciudad Acuna, state of Coahuila, May 25, 2015. STRINGER / Reuters

— The Associated Press