Police divers join search for woman missing in Sydney floods

Sydney, Aug 5 Police divers have joined the search for a woman who has been missing since being swept away in floodwaters north of Australia's Sydney over the weekend, police said on Tuesday.

An emergency search was launched on Saturday night after the 26-year-old woman was swept away while trying to escape a vehicle that had become stuck in floodwater near the town of Cessnock, 115 km north of Sydney.

Police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) said on Tuesday that officers from the diving unit would join the search as it resumed.

A police statement said that the search has continued over the past two days, involving local police, specialist officers from the rescue and bomb disposal unit and marine area command, with assistance from the State Emergency Service, Rural Fire Service and rescue services.

On August 3, police in the state of New South Wales (NSW) said that the woman believed to be in her 20s was one of the two people in a car that became stuck while attempting to drive through floodwater near the town of Rothbury, 130 km north of Sydney, at around 7:50 p.m. local time on Saturday.

Both occupants were attempting to exit the vehicle when the female passenger was swept away. The driver, a second woman aged 27, was uninjured, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the initial search on Saturday night, crews from the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) located a 40-year-old man stuck in a nearby tree after he also became trapped in floodwater.

The man was swept from the tree but was eventually rescued and taken to the hospital for assessment.

The NSW SES responded to over 1,400 calls for assistance amid heavy rain, wind and snow that hit the Hunter, Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast regions north of Sydney on Saturday.

In a severe weather warning issued at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology said that damaging winds were expected to ease by early afternoon.

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