Hundreds of people have been rescued by helicopters and boats after flooding in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms hit parts of the state, some of which were still recovering from similar floods just days earlier.
Cowra, which is about 166 miles west of Sydney, got 121mm of rain in the 24 hours to Monday morning – the highest rainfall in 118 years, according to official data.
In the 48 hours to Monday morning, there was 165mm at Tuena in Southern Tablelands, 127mm at Forbes Airport, and 118mm at Orange, while in neighbouring Victoria, Mount Hotham received 144mm and Tallandoon had 133mm.
The New South Wales State Emergency Service said it had performed 222 flood rescues and received 909 requests for help in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning.
This included around 150 people rescued on Monday from Eugowra and nearby Molong, 67 of them by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
Many of those rescued had been clinging to trees or sitting on rooftops.
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State Emergency Service Chief Superintendent Dallas Burnes said people in Eugowra were shocked at how quickly the water level had risen.
“The velocity was extremely fast – too fast in many cases to put boats in the water – hence the evacuations we performed yesterday with the 12 assets we had on hand via helicopter,” he told Nine’s Today programme.
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‘Lucky to be alive’
Libby Noble was near Eugowra and said her family farmhouse had been flooded to at least kitchen bench height.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald that the farm was left completely underwater, while her 85-year-old mother-in-law was in the family home when it was washed away.
“The house was picked up and washed back there with my mother-in-law inside it,” she told the newspaper.
“She is very lucky to be alive.
“It’s truly inconceivable.
“Sure, Eugowra does flood, but never like this, and never in these areas.”
‘I was hanging on for dear life’
Her mother-in-law told ABC: “I was ringing (emergency number) 000 and the water was getting higher and higher, and then I had to stand on a chair to get out of the water, and I was there for hours.
“I was looking out the window and no one came.
“Eventually, I saw a couple of men wading through the water where it was the road and I banged on the window and yelled, and they saw me, and they came down and got me out.
“It was freezing cold because I’d been standing there for hours.
“I didn’t have much time to think.
“I was hanging on for dear life and hoping for the best and I thought this is it.”
Second flood in as many weeks
Forbes, about 270 miles west of Sydney, is battling its second flood in as many weeks, with the Lachlan River expected to reach 10.8 metres – levels not seen since flooding in 1952.
Evacuation orders had to be brought forward by two hours after flood water rose more quickly than expected.
About 600 properties in the town – which has a population of around 8,000 – are likely to be inundated.
Mayor Phyllis Miller told the Australian Broadcasting Corp: “They can’t believe this could happen twice in such a short period of time.
“I’m an optimist in my life, but this is really heartbreaking.”
Volunteers arriving from overseas
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said the federal government will deploy an additional 100 defence personnel to help in what is the biggest flood rescue operation in the state’s history.
Volunteers have arrived from New Zealand and the state has also asked for help from the US and Singapore, he added.
A body has been recovered from a South African mine after police cut off basic supplies in an effort to force around 4,000 illegal miners to resurface.
The body has emerged from the closed gold mine in the northwest town of Stilfontein a day after South Africa’s government said it would not help the illegal miners.
Around 20 people have surfaced from the mineshaft this week as police wait nearby to arrest all those appearing from underground.
It comes a day after a cabinet minister said the government was trying to “smoke them [the miners] out”.
The move is part of the police’s “Close the Hole” operation, whereby officers cut off supplies of food, water and other basic necessities to get those who have entered illegally to come out.
Local reports suggest the supply routes were cut off at the mine around two months ago, with relatives of the miners seen in the area as the stand-off continues.
A decomposed body was brought up on Thursday, with pathologists on the scene, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.
It comes after South African cabinet minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners, known in the country as zama zamas, because they are involved in a criminal act.
“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted. We didn’t send them there,” Ms Ntshavheni said.
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Senior police and defence officials are expected to visit the area on Friday to “reinforce the government’s commitment to bringing this operation to a safe and lawful conclusion”, according to a media advisory from the police.
In the last few weeks, over 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in South Africa’s North West province, where police have cut off supplies.
Many of the miners were reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.
Illegal mining remains common in South Africa’s old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.
The illegal miners are often from neighbouring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.
Their presence in closed mines has also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.
Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.
In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.
We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.
The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.
They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.
Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.
Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.
He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.
His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’
Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.
We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.
“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.
He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.
Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.
Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.
“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.
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It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.
Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.
A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.
He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.
“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”
Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.
Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.
Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.
“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”
Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.
He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.
“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.
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These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.
Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.
Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.
“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.
But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.
“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”
Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.
The adverse weather could lead to total insured losses of more than €4bn (£3.33bn), according to credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS.
Much of the claims are expected to be covered by the Spanish government’s insurance pool, the agency said, but insurance premiums are likely to increase.