EPSOM, NEW HAMPSHIRE: A BABY'S cries led to his rescue after a tornado demolished this lakeside home in New Hampshire on the United States east coast.

State fire marshal William Degnan said yesterday that firefighters heard the three-month-old's cries and found him in a void between the flattened home's first and second floors.

The body of his grandmother, Brenda Stevens, 57, was also found between the floors, Mr Degnan said.

He said Ms Stevens's husband, Harley, who survived, was blown out of the home in the town of Deerfield. "He was blown out the side of the building and found in the side yard."

Neighbours say the couple had been watching the boy while his parents, the Stevens's son and his wife, were at work.

Twelve people were injured, six homes destroyed and 100 damaged as violent storms hit 11 towns.