Rains and floods, thousands of evacuees in Sydney

Thousands of people are the recipients of an evacuation order in Sydney due to torrential rains and floods affecting Australia's largest city.

The roads are cut off, and the bad weather continues: "It's a life-threatening emergency situation," said Stephanie Cooke, New South Wales State Minister of Emergency Services.

In the past 24 hours, the state emergency service has responded to more than 1,400 requests for intervention.

In the early morning the Warragamba Dam in southwest Sydney started to overflow. In Camden, a suburb of the city, 29 people were rescued.

(Unioneonline / ss)