Floods around the globe

A young Australian girl looks on as teenagers ride their bikes through a flooded street in the city of Horsham, Victoria, after the swollen Wimmera river burst its banks this week. More than 40 Victorian towns have suffered flooding and another 20 are at risk. Photograph: Luis Enrique Ascui/EPA

Rescuers push a stalled motorised tricycle along a flooded road in the township of Cruz in the Philippines on Tuesday, 18 January. The Davao del Sur province in the south of the country suffered severe flooding after weeks of heavy rain. At least three people died as 100 homes were swept away, pushing the number of deaths nationally to 56. Photograph: Froilan Gallardo/AP

A tractor negotiates the flooded highway linking Malmo to Trelleborg in southern Sweden on 17 January. Many roads in the south of the country were flooded after a thaw following last month's heavy snow.
Photograph: Drago Prvulovic/AFP/Getty Images

State rescue workers wade knee-deep as muddy floodwater cascades from a road in the mountain region of Nova Friburgo, Brazil, on 15 January. At least 600 Brazilians have died in landslides caused by the flooding.
Photograph: Pedro Kirilos/O Globo/EPA

An aerial view of an inundated street on 17 January after the Vaal river burst its banks in Free State, South Africa. At least 40 people have died in floods nationally. Photograph: EPA

Postman Gerhard Beck wades through flooded streets to deliver in Wertheim, 60 miles south of Frankfurt, on 17 January. The town has been flooded by the rivers Tauber and Main. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

A man paddles his canoe past flooded houses in Bohorquez, northern Colombia – flooded after the canal connecting Cartagena Bay and Magdalena river overflowed due to unusually heavy rains. Photograph: Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images

Alice Richter-Ward cleans mud from her Brisbane home on 14 January, after floodwaters inundated many parts of the city. Photograph: Eddie Safarik/AFP/Getty Images

A family looks at the remains of their destroyed house in Nova Friburgo, Brazil. Photograph: Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

Sri Lankans displaced by floods take refuge in a makeshift camp in the eastern Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa on 15 January.
Photograph: Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

Hungary from above – frozen inland water on an agricultural field in northern Hungary on 17 January. Photograph: Sandor H Szabo/EPA

Children look over the town of Franco da Rocha, 20 miles west of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photograph: Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

A motorway disappears underwater on 13 January in Brisbane – the day the Brisbane river peaked. Photograph: Jonathan Wood/Getty Images

Firefighter Alan Park checks floodwaters in Bridge of Earn, Perth, on 16 January after the river Earn burst its banks. Flooding has forced people from their homes and led to road closures following heavy rain and melting snow. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

A flooded camping area in De Weerd, Netherlands, on 12 January. Photograph: Koen Van Weel/EPA

Sri Lankan flood victim Weerakutti Nesamma carries a pot of drinking water at her submerged compound in Kartivu, 140 miles east of Colombo, on 15 January. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP

A flash flood covers a street in Toowoomba, Queensland on 10 January. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters

A boy rows a boat along roof-high floodwaters in southern Thailand. Photograph: Madaree Tohlala/AFP/Getty Images

Emergency workers build a sandbag dike as water from melting snow floods the town of Starozreby, eastern Poland, on 15 January. Photograph: Agencja Gazeta/Reuters

High waters gush through Rocheford, Belgium. Reports say at least four people died in floods in the country. Photograph: Bruno Fahy/EPA