A teacher buried under the rubble alongside her pupils at a tornado-hit school in Moore, Oklahoma, has recalled her attempts to shield children from the storm, as rescuers said the search for survivors was drawing to an end.

Jennifer Doan has been praised for acting as a human shield in trying to protect children at Plaza Towers elementary school, which took a direct hit from the monstrous twister.

She cried from her hospital bed as she described putting her arms over her students as the tornado struck on Monday.

We told them to get down, there weren’t any lights on and already they were all scared,’ she told CBS.

‘I had my arms over the ones next to me and I looked up at the door and I put my head down and it just hit.

‘I was telling them to keep calm, and that they would come. (One student) just kept telling me that he couldn’t breathe and that he didn’t want to die.

I don’t know how long we were stuck, and somebody finally came and dug some stuff from above my head and they reached their hand down for me.’

Twenty-four people died as a result of the tornado, the most destructive in recent years, including nine children.

Seven of those children died at Plaza Towers, while a second school – Briarwood Elementary – was also hit.

Antonio Clark, 12, said teachers shoved pupils into the boys’ bathroom to try and protect them.

‘We were all piled in on each other. Everybody was crying. I was crying because I didn’t know if my family was OK.’

Ms Doan was found in the rubble alongside one of her students, who is expected to make a full recovery.

The teacher, who suffered several fractures and multiple lacerations, said she only found out seven of her pupils had died after reaching hospital.

‘It’s been replaying and replaying in my head,’ she said.

Monday’s tornado has been classified as an EF5 after reaching winds of 200mph, placing it at the top of the enhanced Fujita scale used to measure the intensity and power of a storm.

The twister left a trail of destruction through Oklahoma City suburb Moore, with row upon row of houses flattened, and cars and trees strewn everywhere.

Medical officials initially said the death-toll could have been as high as 91, but it was later sharply reduced to 24 amid claims bodies were counted twice in the initial chaos.

Gary Bird, Moore’s fire chief, said he was ’98 per cent sure’ there would be no more bodies or survivors found.

Search and rescue efforts have been hampered by the almost total destruction of street signs and recognisable landmarks, with rescuers hoping to carry out three searches of the remains of every building before completely calling off the operation.