Australia floods: Woman and children found dead in river

A mother and her two children have drowned after their car plunged into floodwaters in Australia.
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Their bodies were recovered from a swollen New South Wales (NSW) river on Tuesday following torrential rain in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

An eight-year-old girl, also part of the family, escaped the vehicle before running to a house for help.

At least three other people have died in Australia's floods since the storm made landfall a week ago, police said.

Authorities have not named the latest victims, but local media said they included a seven-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

Rescue attemptLocals had tried to rescue the family from Tweed River at Tumbulgum, about 1,200km (745 miles) south of where the cyclone first hit.

"It was just too deep," one man, Ben Darcy, told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"We couldn't get down far enough. We swam around and dived down but we couldn't see a thing."

​The girl who survived was taken to hospital with neck pain and leg cuts, authorities said. She has been reunited with family members.

"She is obviously traumatised by the incident," Chief Inspector Mick Dempsey, from NSW Police, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Police said the road was closed at the time of the tragedy