NASHVILLE, Tenn. – At least two tornadoes touched down early Tuesday in central Tennessee, including one that ripped across downtown Nashville and caused about 40 buildings to collapse around the city.

At least five people were killed. The Metro Nashville Police Department said at least two people were killed in East Nashville, while the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department reported three people in the county have died from the storms.

The extent of the storm’s physical damage was jarring — even before the sun rose Tuesday morning — and forecasters said more storms could be on the way. At least 40 structures collapsed around the city, according to the Nashville Fire Department. In addition, windows were blown out and power lines were torn down in an area that stretched from the Germantown neighborhood, north of downtown, into the Five Points area of East Nashville and more than 20 miles to the east in Mt. Juliet.

Officials scrambled to open emergency shelters around the metro area as emergency sirens continued to wail and the smell of natural gas lingered in the air.

Police are searching for injured people and pleading with the able-bodied to stay indoors, at least until daybreak can reveal the dangers of a landscape littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees.

A video posted online from Sam Shamburger, the lead forecaster at the National Weather Service Nashville, showed a well-defined tornado moving quickly across east Nashville.

Some schools already closed for Super Tuesday voting will be kept closed for another week or more to handle repairs. The National Weather Service has confirmed the tornadoes on radar.

The National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for Putnam County, east of Nashville. It confirmed the tornadoes on radar.

A reported gas leak in the Germantown community of Nashville forced an evacuation shortly after the tornado moved through the city.