Accompanied by flash floods, hailstones and destructive winds, it tore the roofs off scores of homes, flattened cars and sent debris flying in south-east Queensland on Sunday, in what some experts described as among the worst storms in 25 years.

Electricity was cut to about 230,000 homes and businesses.

'It looks like...a great big bomb went off in our street,' said Ms Davina Thomas, who lives in a suburb of Brisbane.

'My daughter had her roof blown off (her house). It's in the pool now,' she told local radio.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE