Storms leave at least 9 dead in Queensland and Victoria

2023-12-27 07:28:02

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Bad weather has left at least nine people dead in the eastern Australian states of Queensland and Victoria, authorities said Wednesday.

Three men, aged 48, 59 and 69, died following a boat with 11 passengers on board capsized in bad weather on Tuesday in Moreton Bay, off the southern coast of Queensland, police said.

The eight survivors were taken by ambulance to a hospital in stable condition.

The victims were aboard a recreational boat for an annual fishing trip, The Courier Mail newspaper reported.

Acting Queensland Police Chief Andrew Pilotto said those rescued were lucky to be alive.

“The storm was still going on when they were rescued,” Pilotto said. “Anywhere it would have been very difficult to survive in those conditions.”

Additionally, a 59-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree in the Queensland city of Gold Coast on Monday night. A day later, the body of a 9-year-old girl was found in the neighboring city of Brisbane hours following she disappeared in a flooded pipeline.

The bodies of two women, aged 40 and 46, were located in the Mary River in the town of Gympie, Queensland. They were two of the three women who were swept away by torrents through a pipeline on Tuesday. Another 46-year-old woman managed to survive.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll attributed the tragedies to “extraordinarily difficult weather.”

“It’s been an extremely tragic 24 hours because of the weather,” Carroll told reporters.

Extreme weather has hit parts of southeastern Australia since Monday.

A woman, who has not yet been identified, was found dead on Tuesday night following floodwaters receded at a campsite in Buchan in regional Victoria.

Earlier on Tuesday, a 44-year-old man died following a branch fell on him on his property in Caringal, in eastern Victoria.

Storms and strong winds have brought down more than 1,000 power lines in parts of Queensland, leaving around 85,000 people without power.

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