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Tens of thousands of people have been told to leave their homes after heavy rain and flash flooding hit Sydney in Australia.

More than 50,000 people have been affected by the floods which hit Australia's largest city.

Parts of Sydney have received about eight months of rain in four days after around a month's worth of rain fell over parts of New South Wales over the weekend.

It's not the first time this year that Australia has experienced severe rainfall.

In March, the country's east coast was hit by intense flash floods.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said up to 800mm of rain had hit certain areas, almost a third more than the average rainfall Greater London receives in a year.

Homes, farms and bridges have been left underwater in several suburbs in the west of Australia's largest city.

Roads have been cut off, with more than 100 evacuation orders in place and warnings that the floods could last into next week.

New South Wales emergency services minister Steph Cooke warned that it was a "rapidly evolving situation" and warned that people should be "prepared to evacuate at short notice".

Sydney's main dam had also started to spill.

For some of the city's residents, this is the third major flooding of the year.

Experts say the severe rainfall in the country has been worsened by climate change.

Australia has recently seen more extreme weather with droughts, bushfires, and floods becoming more common and intense as global weather patterns change.