Floodwaters were hampering emergency officials’ efforts to clean up a remote site in northeast Australia where a freight train carrying sulphuric acid derailed a day earlier.

Deadly floodwaters that have cut a swathe across northeast Australia flowed onto the streets of the nation’s third-largest city today, forcing people to flee both suburbs and skyscrapers.

A teenager has vanished after being attacked by two sharks off a popular beach in the southern Australian city of Adelaide, authorities said.

Helicopters and army trackers were brought in today to help search for a British teenager missing in tropical northeast Australia.