Australia to declare floods a national emergency

Heavy rain lashed parts of Australia's most populous state on Tuesday, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders to thousands of people.

Police in Sydney said they recovered the bodies of two people from waters after their car was found in a stormwater canal in the city's western suburbs.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology warned of life-threatening flash flooding in parts of New South Wales.

Sydney recorded up to 100 millimeters (4 inczes) of rain.

Australia's east coast has had an extraordinarily long stretch of torrential rain and major flooding in the last two weeks.