One man was rescued after the flash floods left him clinging to a tree for his life Flash floods have hit Queensland, killing one person with several more missing, as heavy rains continue to pound the Australian state.
A “massive” deluge of water overwhelmed Toowoomba, a city west of the state capital Brisbane, without warning.
A rescue operation is under way to reach those trapped in cars and on the roofs of buildings, officials say.
Eleven people have died since the tropical storms began in November, the worst flooding in the state in decades.
Some 200,000 have been affected across Queensland and neighbouring New South Wales.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the recovery will take a “long time back”.
Officials said the person who died was a female pedestrian.
The mayor of Toowoomba described the scale of the damage caused by the flash floods as “unbelievable”.
Mayor Peter Taylor said: ”It’s a real disaster scene where I’m standing at the moment in Russell Street, Toowoomba. There’s furniture and furnishings and it’s just blown shops away.
”We have a railway line about 60 or 70m suspended in mid-air and two cars that are virtually unrecognisable that have floated and smashed into the rail.”
Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said there had been many calls from people needing to be rescued.
“We’ve had multiple calls requesting urgent assistance from people caught in vehicles, caught on the street, caught in flood ways,” he said.
“This has just evolved. There has been no warning of this event.”
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