(Updates with higher death toll)

By Jim Brumm

WILMINGTON, N.C., Nov 16 (Reuters) - A tornado ripped through a North Carolina trailer park on Thursday, killing at least eight people as it tore mobile homes off their foundations and flipped cars into the air, officials said.

Four people were missing, according to North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, and 20 people with storm-related injuries were taken to hospitals after the twister splintered the mobile homes just west of the town of Riegelwood, North Carolina, and left a trail of debris and strewn clothing.

Kip Godwin, Columbus County commission chairman, told Reuters the death toll could rise as emergency teams searched the area for other casualties, who might have been flung into neighboring woods by the fierce windstorm.

"It was just like a war zone as you would imagine, cars on top of cars, cars on top of houses, people's clothing everywhere," County Commissioner Sammie Jacobs said by telephone. "I noticed a couple of bodies were in a ditch."

Easley sent North Carolina's emergency response team to the area and told a news conference that up to 40 homes were destroyed. Up to 20,000 customers lost power, two North Carolina utility companies said.

Jennifer Long, director of the Columbus County tourism board, said the tornado touched down about 7 a.m. and an emergency shelter had been set up for people who lost their homes.

The tornado was created by a storm system that caused havoc across large parts of the South on Wednesday and early on Thursday. Media reports said one person died on Wednesday in Louisiana.

In a separate tornado incident, an elderly man was injured in Iredell County in North Carolina overnight, the Red Cross said.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg in Atlanta and Michael Christie in Miami)

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