Damaging storm leaves thousands without electricity on Australia's east coast

Sydney, Jan 23 A damaging storm that hit Australia's east coast in the early hours of Thursday morning has left thousands of people without electricity and major roads blocked by fallen trees.

The electrical storm hit the east coast town of Grafton, almost 500 km north of Sydney, the capital city of the state of New South Wales (NSW), before dawn on Thursday and moved north into Queensland, delivering intense rainfall and wind speeds exceeding 100 km per hour, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The storm caused widespread damage, bringing down trees and power cables.

As of 9:30 am local time, over 25,000 homes and businesses were without power.

The State Emergency Service (SES), which said it was caught off guard by the storm, received more than 100 calls for help.

Work to restore power to properties affected by blackouts has begun, Xinhua news agency reported.

In another incident, a man died and the other man was injured in a house fire in western suburbs of Melbourne, the capital city of Australia's state of Victoria.

Emergency services were called to the house in Deer Park, about 16 km west of central Melbourne, at about 12 pm local time on Thursday after the fire started in a bedroom, the ABC reported.

Police said that two people were in the home at the time. One man died at the scene and the other man in his 30s was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Fire and rescue authorities said that the fire was contained to one bedroom and was brought under control in less than 15 minutes.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

It is the second deadly house fire in the area in seven days. A 27-year-old woman was killed on January 16 when a house in the neighbouring suburb of Truganina was targetted in an arson attack that police said was a case of mistaken identity.