SYDNEY, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- A man has been found dead in a vehicle submerged in floodwater in the Australian state of Queensland amid ongoing torrential rainfall.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) said in a statement that officers were called to a vehicle submerged in floodwater near the small outback town of Normanton, over 1,500 km northwest of Brisbane, at around 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police officers arrived and located a man aged in his 70s deceased in the vehicle.
The QPS said the death has not been deemed suspicious and urged motorists to never drive through floodwaters.
Parts of tropical northern Queensland have received four consecutive days of torrential rainfall from two severe weather systems active over the state, causing widespread flooding.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), towns in the state's remote northwest have received the equivalent of their average annual rainfall over the course of one week.
As of Wednesday morning, the BoM had multiple severe weather warnings in place for heavy rainfall and flooding across northwest Queensland, as well as parts of the state's northeast. The warnings said that further heavy rainfall capable of causing flash flooding was forecast to continue.
"That significant flood risk comes from the fact that we've got heavy rainfall that is forecast to fall across already saturated soil and already flooded rivers," senior meteorologist Harry Clark told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Around 50 roads across Queensland have been closed due to flooding, cutting off several small towns in the northwest that have been told they could be isolated for up to one week. ■
