Ayaz Younus, 25, was on his first day as a contractor when his Toyota became trapped in floodwaters in Glenorie on Sydney's northern outskirts. Photo / Pakistan Association of Australia
Ayaz Younus, 25, was on his first day as a contractor when his Toyota became trapped in floodwaters in Glenorie on Sydney's northern outskirts. Photo / Pakistan Association of Australia
A Pakistani man who died in Sydney floodwaters was on the phone to emergency services and tried desperately to free himself from his car but he could not get out.
Ayaz Younus, 25, was on his first day as a contractor when his Toyota Camby became trapped in floodwaters in Glenorie on Sydney's northern outskirts.
"You can only just imagine somebody fighting for their life to get out of the car – that's what the inside damage of the car looked like," Detective Inspector Chris Laird said as he described the horrific scene.
Police said the man called emergency services just before 6.30am after he became trapped in floodwaters on Cattai Ridge Road in Glenorie.
He managed to stay on the phone to emergency services for nearly 40 minutes until the connection was lost.
His vehicle was later found just after 1pm with his body inside.
Inspector Laird said there were no broken windows and the man "clearly couldn't get out".
"We can only speculate again that, given what I have seen and the damage to the vehicle, that it could very well be that the electrics totally failed and he was simply unable to escape from the car, which is an absolute tragedy," he said.
"Also, the fact that he was on the phone for so long is even more tragic and is going to form part of our inquiries as to what actually went on in the car and why this tragic accident occurred."
Emergency workers use boats on a flooded road to help people stranded by flood water in Windsor, northwest of Sydney, today. Photo / AP
Younus, from Malir Cantt Karachi, was studying software engineering and had two elder brothers and one younger sister, said Farhat Jaffri, from the Pakistan Association of Australia.
"Family has requested to send the body back to Karachi," Jaffri said, after speaking with the man's father.
"I have requested to Consul General to take care of this matter and offered any assistance from Pakistan Association of Australia."
Inspector Laird said the 25-year-old man was on the first day of a new contracting job.
"We can only speculate that he may have not known the area as locals would … he may not have seen the water as he drove in given the fact that the gates across the road were completely submerged," he told reporters.
"Sadly, in hindsight we can always say never drive into a swollen road and that will form part of our inquiries."
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Just hours after telling reporters it was "simply a miracle" there had been no deaths in the wildly destructive floods, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told parliament the state had recorded its first fatality.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also addressed the tragedy in federal parliament.
"It underscores the messages everybody from the NSW Premier, the Prime Minister down have been issuing over recent days, and that is, please, do not enter these floodwaters."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed his deepest condolences, on behalf of the parliament to the man's family.
"As the floodwaters recede and the clean-up begins ... their house will be dark and their grief will be great because their loss will not recede," Morrison said.
"I just pray a blessing on their family."
Debris piles up at a submerged bridge in Windsor, northwest of Sydney. Photo / AP
The death was one of two men, who were trapped in vehicles hundreds of kilometers apart, to have become the first fatalities of record flooding on Australia's east coast.
In the other case, an emergency crew retrieved the body of David Hornman from an upturned pickup truck in a flooded creek 680km north near Gold Coast city in Queensland state, police said. The 38-year-old was last seen Monday.
While rain has eased across New South Wales and southern Queensland, flooding has persisted. Most rivers had peaked by Thursday, but 20,000 people were still evacuated from their homes, Berejiklian said.
Emergency services have made hundreds of rescues since the flooding began last week. Parts of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, have received one-in-50-year and one-in-100-year rainfall records in the past week.
Insurance companies expect the damage in New South Wales to exceed A$1 billion.
Morrison reflected on the state's recent struggles — years of drought across most of the state culminated in catastrophic wildfires last summer. The fires were followed by the coronavirus pandemic and now record floods.
"We have seen so much over the course of the past year and more as this country has battled so many things — floods, fires, viruses, drought and now these floods again," Morrison told Parliament.
In the Vatican, Pope Francis offered encouragement in the aftermath of the Australian flooding.
"In the past days, great floods have caused serious damage in New South Wales," Francis said in his customary Wednesday remarks to the faithful.
"I stand close to the people and the families hit by this calamity, especially those who saw their houses destroyed. I encourage those who are helping to look for the dispersed and to bring their support," he added.
A flotilla of boats was delivering crucial supplies to isolated communities on the flooded Hawkesbury River northwest of Sydney and ferrying stranded residents to safety.
Morrison took a flight over the river to survey the damage Wednesday.
"The expanse of water that went right across that region was quite devastating to see and to see the homes, only their roofs and those of out sheds," Morrison said.
Dutton said more than 700 defense personnel would soon be deployed as the floods recede to help people return to their homes and businesses as quickly as possible.
