Ammon News - The Australian emergency services on Monday ordered around 32,000 people in Sydney to evacuate as overflowing rivers swamped swathes of land and the city's largest dam spilled torrents of water.

According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) , rescuers said they had saved about 20 people in the past 12 hours, many trapped in cars on flood-swept roads in New South Wales on the third day of torrential rains on the east coast.

An official in the State Emergency Services said that 32,000 people were under evacuation orders or warnings in New South Wales. "Waters in some areas may exceed levels reached in deadly flood disasters experienced on Australia’s east coast in the past two years," the official added.