Police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) announced that three people sitting in two parked cars were injured in a public place shooting in Greenacre, a suburb in Southwestern Sydney, on Sunday morning, police said.
The unit was then declared a crime scene and a locked garage under the complex was searched.
Victoria recorded 1,504 cases and seven deaths, while total of 384 people are in hospital and 84 in the ICU.
Of the new cases, 1,599 were from New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state and the current epicentre of the pandemic, where the health department also recorded eight deaths.
With the new spike, the country's overall caseload has increased to 69,923, while the deaths stood at 1,076.
This is the first time a state of emergency has been declared in the territory since the 2003 bushfires that killed four people and destroyed almost 500 buildings.
Heavy rainfall has helped to contain and, in some cases, extinguish long-running blazes but an expected return to searing heat and gusting winds Thursday was flagged as a cause for concern as dozens of fires continued to burn.
The national weather agency confirmed fears there was no sign of that happening in the next few months as it released its annual report, which also showed that 2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest year on record.
About 4,000 people in the town of Mallacoota in Victoria headed to the waterfront after the main road was cut off.
For the first time in Australian history, the government also deployed its medical assistance team, normally sent to other nations to lend support in the aftermath of their disasters to help evacuees.
