The 600ft (182m) chimney at the former Longannet coal-fired power station is demolished on December 9 in Kincardine, Scotland.

A hazardous surf warning is in place for the New South Wales coastline as more wet weather is set to hit the state today.

A large southerly swell is predicted to make its way up the state's coastline today.

Surf Life Saving NSW has urged the public to exercise caution, particularly those in the south to the Central Coast.

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"Consistent high tides of as much a five metres are expected on the Far South Coast, while regions including the Central Coast can expect 3.5 – four metre swell offshore," Surf Life Saving NSW said in a statement.

"It is anticipated that these conditions could be felt all the way up to the Queensland border in some capacity, impacting open and exposed beaches and headlands."

Rain and wind conditions are expected into the weekend for NSW.

It comes after heavy rainfall caused major flooding on the NSW South Coast.

Major flooding has hit Mogo on the NSW South Coast with the town's centre completely submerged today.

Floodwaters show no sign of subsiding.

Only two years ago bushfires tore through the town which devastated residents, some of who are still in temporary accommodation.

Flood warnings remain in place for rivers on the NSW South Coast.

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https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1469343076246245385

Queensland

There are still major flood warning in place for parts of Queensland this morning.

It comes as heavy rain sparked flash flooding yesterday.

The wild weather claimed the lives of two people in the last two days, including a 44-year-old woman who was trapped in floodwaters at Cabbage Creek.

Authorities say conditions are easing slightly.

Victoria

Rainfall has eased across West Gippsland, parts of North East Victoria and the Werribee River.

"In the 72 hours to 11:00 am Friday, widespread rainfall totals of 60-130 mm were recorded in parts of the flood watch covered by warnings," the Bureau of Meteorology said.

"A further 10-30 mm is forecast for Friday into Saturday."

South Australia

A high pressure system will move slowly eastwards to be centred over the southern Tasman Sea by Sunday morning.

This system will extend over South Australia through the weekend.

Today will be dry with mild conditions near the southern coast.

Western Australia

A heat trough over the inland Kimberley and Pilbara will remain over the weekend.

It comes as an emergency warning remains in place for the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, with campers and residents evacuated as a bushfire burns.

Northern Territory

There is a slight to medium chance of showers and gusty thunderstorms over the Daly, northern Arnhem and northwest Gregory Districts.

It's expected to be sunny elsewhere.

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Rescue workers rushing to a highway accident in southern Mexico found a horrific scene: A tractor trailer jammed with as many as 200 migrants crashed into the base of a steel pedestrian bridge, killing 55 and injuring dozens.

The migrants inside the cargo trailer were tossed and crushed in a pile of both the living and the dead.

In addition to the 55 killed Thursday evening, at least 52 were injured. It was one of the deadliest days for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

Volunteer rescuers hauled bodies off the pile by their arms and legs, while some migrants scrambled to extract themselves from the twisted steel sheets of the collapsed container.

One young man, pinned in a heap of unmoving bodies, wriggled to free the lower half of his frame, his face wrenched into a grimace as he extracted himself from the weight of the dead.

Nearby, a man blinked his eyes, unable to move as he lay on the shoulder of the road. Next to him was a fellow migrant, stouter and older, whose eyes stared lifeless and unblinking into the setting sun.

While the Mexican government is trying to appease the United States by stopping caravans of walking migrants and allowing the reinstatement of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, it hasn't been able to stop the flood of migrants stuffed hundreds at a time into freight trucks operated by smugglers who charge thousands of dollars to take them to the US border — trips that all too often lead them only to their deaths.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said such cases are painful.

"We have been insisting that the causes that originate these unfortunate events must be addressed," he said at his morning news conference.

López Obrador said he has been insisting with US President Joe Biden that the immigration situation is urgent, but that the US government is moving slowly.

The most severely injured, many bloodied, were carried by their arms and legs to plastic sheets set on the road. Those who could walk were led, stunned and uncomprehending, to the same sheets. Ambulances, cars and pickup trucks were pressed into service, ferrying the injured to hospitals.

Later, the dead were laid in rows of white sheets, side by side, on the highway.

Rescue workers who first arrived said that even more migrants had been aboard the truck when it crashed and had fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents. One paramedic said some of those who hurried into surrounding neighbourhoods were bloodied or bruised, but still limped away in their desperation to escape.

About 200 migrants may have been packed into the truck, said Guatemala's top human rights official, Jordán Rodas. While shocking, that number is not unusual for migrant smuggling operations in Mexico, and the weight of the load — combined with speed and a nearby curve — may have been enough to throw the truck off balance, authorities said.

Luis Manuel Moreno, head of the Chiapas state civil defence office, said about 21 of the injured had serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals. The federal Attorney General's Office said three were critically injured in the crash on a highway leading from the Guatemalan border toward the Chiapas state capital.

Sitting on the pavement beside the overturned trailer, survivor Celso Pacheco of Guatemala said the truck felt like it was speeding and then seemed to lose control.

Pacheco said there were migrants mostly from Guatemala and Honduras aboard and estimated there were eight to 10 young children. He said he was trying to reach the United States, but now expected to be deported to Guatemala.

Marco Antonio Sánchez, director of the Chiapas Firefighter Institute, said ambulances raced victims to three hospitals, carrying three to four injured each. When there weren't enough ambulances, they loaded them into pickup trucks, he said.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei wrote on Twitter: "I deeply regret the tragedy in Chiapas state, and I express my solidarity for the victims' families, to whom we will offer all the necessary consular assistance, including repatriation."

At the Vatican, Pope Francis, who visited Chiapas in 2015 and has made the plight of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, sent a telegram of condolences Friday to the archbishop of Tuxtla Gutierrez. In the note, he offered prayers for the victims, their families and for the injured.

The truck had originally been a closed freight module of the kind used to transport perishable goods. The container was smashed open by the force of the impact. It was unclear if the driver survived.

Those who spoke to survivors said the migrants told of boarding the truck in Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, and of paying between US$2500 ($3483) and US$3500 ($4877) to be taken to Mexico's central state of Puebla. Once there, they would presumably have contracted with another set of smugglers to take them to the US border.

In recent months, Mexican authorities have tried to block migrants from walking in large groups toward the US border, but the clandestine and illicit flow of smuggling has continued.

In October, in one of the largest busts in recent memory, authorities in the northern border state of Tamaulipas found 652 mainly Central American migrants jammed into a convoy of six cargo trucks heading toward the U.S. border.

Irineo Mujica, an activist who is leading a march of about 400 migrants who have been walking for almost 1 1/2 months across southern Mexico, blamed Thursday's disaster on Mexico cracking down on migrant caravans.

Mujica and his group had almost reached the outskirts of Mexico City, after weeks of dealing with National Guard officers who tried to block the march. Mujica said the group would stop and offer prayers for the dead migrants.

"These policies that kill us, that murder us, is what leads to this type of tragedy," Mujica said.

In fact, they are two very different groups. Caravans generally attract migrants who don't have the thousands of dollars needed to pay migrant smugglers.

Migrants involved in serious accidents are often allowed to stay in Mexico at least temporarily because they are considered witnesses to and victims of a crime, and Mexico's National Immigration Institute said it would offer humanitarian visas to the survivors.

The agency also said the Mexican government would help identify the dead and cover funeral costs or repatriation of their remains.

Mass deaths of migrants are something that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been desperate to avoid, even as his administration has accepted requests from the US government to stem the flow of migrants moving north.

"It is very painful," he wrote on his Twitter account about the crash.

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