Residents work in the rubble of destroyed houses after a tornado in Funing, in Yancheng, East China's Jiangsu Province on Thursday. Photo: AFP

At least 98 people were killed in the tornado that swept Yancheng, East China's Jiangsu Province on Thursday, as experts called for further preparations to cope with increasingly frequent extreme weather and disasters in China.

More than 800 people were injured and the condition of around 200 is still serious after a tornado, accompanied with hailstorms, thunderstorms and lightning in Yancheng early Thursday afternoon, Yancheng authorities said in a press briefing Friday.

Over 8,000 households, two elementary schools and eight factory buildings were damaged in Funing and Sheyang counties, and parts of Yancheng along the eastern coast.

Authorities in Jiangsu have dispatched more than 1,000 police officers and firefighters from nearby cities to evacuate over 2,000 residents and search for survivors, the Yancheng public security bureau posted on its official Sina Weibo on Friday.

State Councilor Yang Jing left Beijing for Jiangsu Friday and will direct the rescue and emergency response work and visit the displaced and injured.

Yancheng authorities said Friday that they had activated the highest level of response following the extreme weather. Heavy rain and the possibility of more hailstorms and tornadoes had further complicated rescue efforts.

"The damage is terrible, I have not seen anything like this in years,"  Zhou Xiang, head of Jiangsu fire corps and director of the rescue headquarters, told the Xinhua News Agency.

 "The sudden tornado caught people completely off guard, resulting in a large number of deaths," said Zhou, adding that most houses in the storm-hit area are low-rise brick homes, they were never built to withstand extremely powerful winds. Many deaths and injuries were caused by fallen power lines and pylons. 

 Wang Gengchen, a research fellow from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that tornado could cause huge amounts of damage in a short time through hail and storms and China has yet to establish an extensive warning system.

Tornados occasionally hit eastern and southern China during the summer, but rarely result in this scale of damage. A similar disaster last hit Yancheng in March 1966.

 "Tornados are difficult to monitor and predict. They usually happen quickly and move fast," said Wang.

Even though the US has the most developed meteorological technologies in the world, it can't predict tornados with 100 percent accuracy before they form, Li Xiaoquan, an expert from the Central Meteorological Station, was quoted as saying by news site news.sina.com.cn.

The US has a national warning center that predicts the possibility of tornados one to three days in advance and it stations in every vulnerable region to issue alerts 15 minutes in advance of the tornado, according to news.sina.com.cn.

Compared with flood and hurricanes, tornados are rare in China and the system is underfunded and poorly staffed, Wang noted.

Wang said that local governments should prepare properly for the increasing instances of extreme weather to reduce damages.

President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out rescue efforts and the prioritization of life-saving measures.

Xi said that authorities must make their utmost efforts to reduce casualties and facilitate resettlement of those affected by the extreme weather and they must also strengthen meteorological monitoring and geological disaster assessment. Premier Li Keqiang also ordered local authorities to step up the search and rescue work.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs have sent emergency supplies, including 1,000 tents, to the disaster-hit area, Xinhua reported.

Xinhua contributed to this story