NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize in the coveted public service category, while another Pennsylvania newspaper, The Patriot-News, took home the award for local reporting for its coverage of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.

The Philadelphia Inquirer won for what for the board described as "its exploration of pervasive violence in the city's schools," beating out nominees The New York Times and the Miami Herald.

Other Pulitzer winners included The New York Times, for international reporting and explanatory reporting, and Alabama's The Tuscaloosa News for breaking news in its reporting on the devastating tornado that killed 64 people in its hometown last year.

In announcing the award, the Pulitzer Prize board cited The Tuscaloosa News for "using social media as well as traditional reporting to provide real-time updates, help locate missing people and produce in-depth print accounts even after power disruption forced the paper to publish at another plant 50 miles away."

No prize was awarded for fiction, the first time since 1977 that the panel has not awarded a prize in the category.

Administered by Columbia University, the prizes were widely dispersed among various papers for stories that ranged from the a series on wounded American soldiers to the investigation of New York Police Department spying within the Muslim community.

Chosen by juries in categories across journalism, books , drama and poetry, each winner receives $10,000. Among first time winners were two online news organizations, and Huffington Post, for national reporting, and Politico, for editorial cartooning.

Among the most notable winners was Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News Staff, which helped uncover the sex abuse scandal at Penn State involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)