Severe weather has killed at least 10 people in the eastern Australian states of Queensland and Victoria, officials said on Wednesday.
Three men, aged 48, 59 and 69, were killed on Tuesday after a boat with 11 people on board capsized in bad weather in Moreton Bay off the south Queensland coast, police said . Ambulances transported eight survivors to a hospital in stable conditions.
The men were aboard the 39-foot pleasure boat for an annual fishing trip, The Courier Mail newspaper reported.
A fallen tree is pictured on the roof of a house in Australia’s southeast Queensland region, December 26, 2023, after severe weather moved through the area.
Reuters
Queensland Police Acting Chief Superintendent Andrew Pilotto said those rescued were lucky to survive.
“The storm was still raging when they were rescued,” Pilotto said. “It would have been very difficult to survive in these conditions anywhere. »
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Elsewhere, a 59-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree in the Queensland town of Gold Coast on Monday evening. The body of a 9-year-old girl was found in the neighboring city of Brisbane on Tuesday, hours after she disappeared into a flooded storm drain.
The bodies of a 40-year-old woman and a 46-year-old woman have been found in the Mary River in the Queensland town of Gympie. They were among three women swept into the swollen river by a storm drain on Tuesday. Another 46-year-old woman managed to escape.
A damaged boat lies in Brisbane Harbor on December 27, 2023, after severe weather ravaged Australia’s Queensland and Victoria states.
Reuters
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll blamed the tragedies on “extraordinarily severe weather conditions”.
“It’s been a very tragic 24 hours because of the weather,” Carroll told reporters.
Severe weather has hit parts of southeast Australia since Monday, including Queensland and Victoria.
A woman, who has not yet been identified, was found dead on Tuesday evening after flash floods receded at a campsite in Buchan, regional Victoria. The body of an unidentified man, who was camping with the woman, was found Wednesday evening, police said.
Also on Tuesday, a 44-year-old man was killed by a falling branch on his rural property in Caringal, eastern Victoria.
Thunderstorms and strong winds brought down more than 1,000 power lines in parts of Queensland and left 85,000 people without power.
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