North-eastern Australia hit by first tropical cyclone of the season

The storm felled trees in Queensland (Queensland Police Service via AP)

The first tropical cyclone to hit Australia in the current season has weakened to a low pressure system but it continued to lash the north-east coast with flooding rain and left almost 40,000 homes and businesses without power.

Cyclone Jasper crossed the Queensland coast as a category 2 storm on a five-tier scale that whipped the sparsely populated region with winds of up to 87mph.