Two bodies found in floodwaters near canal where mother and son went missing
The bodies of a woman and a man have been found in floodwaters in Sydney, believed to be those of a mother and son who went missing yesterday.
Police divers had been searching for 67-year-old Hemalathasolhyr Satchithanantham and her 34-year-old son, Bramooth, after their car was found in Wentworthville.
Today, two bodies were found less than a kilometre from where their Mazda3 was discovered about 4.30pm yesterday, in the Cooper Creed stormwater canal.
While bodies have not yet been formally identified, NSW Police said in a statement they are believed to be the missing mother and son.
“About 8.20am today, emergency services were called to Coopers Creek Canal, near Hopkins Street, Constitution Hill, after reports a body had been sighted in the water,” the statement read.
“With assistance from specialist resources including Police Rescue and the SES, the body of a woman was pulled from the water.
“A short time later, officers searching nearby located the body of a man in water, which was retrieved by police divers.”
When police found the car yesterday, there were personal possessions found inside, but the pair could not be located.
Emergency services busy with rescues
The SES has responded to hundreds of calls for assistance in the last 24 hours.
Overnight, an elderly couple was rescued from their car just minutes before it was swallowed by floodwaters in Sydney’s south-west.
Firefighters were called to Menangle Road in Campbelltown just before 10pm on Monday to find three cars in floodwaters, with the couple trapped inside one of them.
They were on the phone speaking to relatives at the scene, trying to get hold of some assistance.
The car was almost engulfed, with firefighters having to move through 75 metres of rising floodwaters to reach it.
They were able to break the car windows to rescue the pair.
The couple were carried to safety by the fire crew, just minutes before their car was submerged.
The pair suffered minor injuries and were taken by relatives for further medical treatment.
The other cars were unoccupied.
It is just one of hundreds of rescues carried out in NSW in the past 24 hours as SES volunteers work frantically to respond to thousands of calls for assistance.
Major Sydney tunnel transformed into river
People have been urged to avoid driving through floodwaters and to stay off the roads entirely if possible.
NSW SES Assistant Commissioner Sean Kearns said in the past 24 hours, the SES had responded to more than 1100 flood rescues and more than 2400 requests for assistance across NSW.
Most had been on the Mid North Coast, metropolitan Sydney, and the Illawarra.
