SYDNEY: Emergency services in Australia`s Queensland state evacuated residents on Saturday, as recordbreaking floods sparked by heavy rain lashed the region`s northwest.

Fifty three residents of the isolated Gulf Country town of Burketown, about 2,115 km northwest of state capital Brisbane, had been evacuated since heavy rain triggered floods earlier this week, police said on Saturday.

At Burketown, the flood topped the March 2011record of 6.87metres after up to 293 mm of rain fell on Thursday and Friday.-Reuters