Nine dead, 66 missing in Australia floods

Australian police confirmed the toll after a 26ft wall of water - described as an "instant inland tsunami" - inundated the city late on Monday.

The waters swept away cars, houses and pedestrians, killing at least two children and leaving many residents stranded on rooftops for hours.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that 50 of the reported missing had been found alive.

The Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, has described the latest deluge as "without a doubt our darkest hour of the last two weeks".

The flash flood was prompted by more heavy rains falling on the already-saturated state and officials say there was little warning of the surge.

The waters receded almost as quickly as they appeared in the city, which has a population of 90,000 and is located 80 miles west of the state capital Brisbane.

But they soon spread to other smaller communities, inundating the town of Grantham and other rural areas.

Officials warned residents of towns downstream of Toowoomba to move to higher ground, particularly as heavy rain and thunderstorms were predicted in the region throughout Tuesday.

In Brisbane, people have been given sandbags as floods are expected to peak there on Wednesday.

Some areas of Queensland received more than 13in of rainfall in 24 hours, the Bureau of Meteorology reported on Monday.

Bligh told Australia's Nine Network: "Right now we have every possible available resource deployed into this region to search for those people that we know are missing.

"This is going to be I think a very grim day."

Darkness and fog prohibited the state emergency service helicopters from overnight rescues on Monday, meaning many residents were still stranded on Tuesday morning.

Queensland has been hit by the worst flooding in decades due to incessant rains since late November and 200,00 people are said to have been affected.

State officials have put the cost of the disaster so far at about $5bn