Australian troops were seriously injured on Saturday in a major road crash while responding to ex-Cyclone Alfred, which has battered a swathe of the eastern coast and cut power to more than 330,000 properties. The former tropical cyclone -- now downgraded to a tropical depression -- made landfall in the late evening over Bribie Island on the Queensland coastline after lingering for days offshore. The weather system has whipped up gale-force winds that toppled trees, brought down power lines, and damaged buildings. And it is still creating heavy rainfall, swelling rivers in parts of a 400-kilometre stretch of the coast straddling southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales, government forecasters said. Near the flood-prone New South Wales city of Lismore, two Australian Defence Force (ADF) trucks deployed to help the community were involved in a crash, resulting in 36 injuries -- some serious, government officials and emergency services said. — AFP
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