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A body located by police divers in the NSW Southern Tablelands is believed to be that of one of two men flung from the tray of a utility swept away in floodwaters.

The pair were declared missing late Monday night, when an attempt was made to drive the ute across a spilling causeway at Bevendale. Two men riding in the cab managed to escape and swim to safety.

The body was recovered about 2pm on Thursday by divers involved in the search and the effort to find the second missing man continues.

Thousands of residents have meanwhile been ordered to leave homes as bursting inland rivers continue to swell and communities brace for inundation.

More than 100 emergency warnings are active across NSW in total, 22 two of them for evacuation.

The central western wheatbelt town of Forbes is Friday's main place of concern. About a thousand people there have been told to leave for higher ground.

With the overflowing Lachlan River threatening to cut off properties and strand residents, emergency accommodation has been set up at a local school.

Local cattle farmer Charles Laverty spent Thursday sandbagging his property on the outskirts of the town, with about a third of his paddocks already underwater.

Continued flooding has hit the area and other farming communities hard, as they struggle to recover from repeated bouts of destruction to crops and livestock losses.

"A lot of (my neighbours) have given up on harvesting those areas, which is very expensive," Mr Laverty told AAP.

"The losses are going to be devastating for them."

Record flooding is forecast with the Lachlan expected to peak at 10.80 metres on Friday.

NSW SES Zone Commander Ben Pickup says peaks will likely continue through to Saturday.

"I really encourage the community of Forbes - please listen to the warning information," he said on Thursday.

Major flooding on the Lachlan River is also causing inundation in the town of Nanami, while major flooding continues further downstream at Condobolin, with the river not expected to fall for weeks.

The Murrumbidgee River has also burst its banks, with major floods peaking overnight and evacuation orders in place for the major regional centre of Wagga Wagga.

Upstream at Gundagai, river levels are currently higher than for those recorded in floods in 1989.

Moderate flooding continues further on at Narrandera, with major inundation possible early next week and it's a similar scenario for nearby Darlington Point.

© AAP 2022

Older, disabled and pregnant residents of Lismore were left behind in NSW state and local authorities' flood response in February, a new report has found.

Human Rights Watch researcher Sophie McNeill said the response did not take into account marginalised groups with those acutely at risk being older Australians, those with a disability and pregnant women.

"During the 2022 floods, NSW authorities did not adequately warn or help at-risk people, which led to terrifying and deadly consequences".

"Climate change exacerbates inequalities, and the failures seen in Lismore highlight the urgent need for the authorities to ensure inclusive climate action and planning".

Ms McNeill also urged the federal government "to make at-risk groups a priority in their extreme weather response planning".

Lismore, the epicentre of flooding across the Northern Rivers, peaked at 14.4 metres in late February.

A state government-commissioned inquiry into the devastating floods which killed 13 people and destroyed some 4000 homes made 28 recommendations including overhauling Resilience NSW, the main agency tasked with emergency response.

HRW's report on Friday drew on interviews with 23 Lismore flood survivors who squarely blamed NSW and local authorities for not providing adequate flood warnings, evacuation, or rescue support.

The rights group cited the testimony of North Lismore resident Laurie Axtens, 57, who feared for the lives of his mother, Valerie, 91, and Christopher, 53, his brother, who has a disability.

As the water rose, Mr Axtens was unable to lift them into the roof cavity.

"I tried to ring them, I couldn't even get through. I tried to ring 000. And he put me on hold! It was terrifying to be completely honest," he said.

"I could have gotten into the loft in my house, but I couldn't get Val or Christopher".

"If it was just left to the government response, we were stuffed".

Another stranded local was 32year-old South Lismore resident Jahnaya Mumford who was 38 weeks pregnant the night the flood waters rose rapidly.

Like many of her neighbours, she had moved her car to higher ground earlier that day and did not receive an evacuation order from emergency services.

Once the gushing waters rose, Ms Mumford, her mother, and her 13-year-old daughter called emergency services 35 times asking to be rescued but their attempts were rebuffed.

"My first phone call I think was 3.30 am. I said I've got two young kids and I'm 38 weeks pregnant. The water's just about to come inside my top story of my house ... and they said we aren't doing any rescues till daylight".

"By the time it got to our chins, and I was standing on my tippy toes. I was starting to panic; I was worried I was going to go into labour".

In response to HRW's report, the State Emergency Service said it had deployed rescue crews "in accordance with existing emergency management arrangements".

"As an emergency service organisation, we will always be looking out for what we can do better," it said.

© AAP 2022

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan has been shot in the shin when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country in what his aides say was a clear assassination attempt.

Khan, 70, who was ousted as prime minister in April, was six days into a protest procession, standing and waving to thousands of cheering supporters from the roof of a container truck when shots rang out.

Several others in his convoy were wounded and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said a suspect had been arrested after the attack in Wazirabad, nearly 200km from Islamabad.

In purported footage of the shooting, being run by multiple channels, a man with a handgun is grabbed from behind by one of the people at the gathering.

He then tries to flee.

TV channels showed a man they said was a suspected shooter, who looked to be in his twenties or thirties.

He said he wanted to kill Khan and had acted alone.

"He (Khan) was misleading the people, and I couldn't bear it," the suspect said in the video.

The information minister confirmed the footage was recorded by police.

No one has yet been charged with the attack.

Khan had been whipping up large crowds on his way to the capital Islamabad in a campaign to topple the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

One member of Khan's party said there were reports one person had been killed in the attack.

"It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but he's stable. There was a lot of bleeding," Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters.

"If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out."

He wrote on Twitter: "It was a well-planned assassination attempt on Imran Khan, the assassin planned to kill Imran Khan and leadership of PTI, it was not 9 MM it was burst from automatic weapon, no two opinions about that it was narrow escape."

Local media showed pictures of Khan waving to the crowd after being removed from his vehicle following the shooting.

He was taken to hospital in Lahore as protesters poured out on to streets in some parts of the country and PTI leaders demanded justice.

PTI colleague Faisal Javed, who was also wounded and had blood stains on his clothes, told Geo TV from the hospital: "Several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead."

Prime Minister Sharif condemned the shooting and ordered an immediate investigation.

Since being ousted through a parliamentary vote, Khan has held rallies across Pakistan, stirring opposition against a government that is struggling to bring the economy out of the crisis that Khan's administration left it in.

Khan had planned to lead the motorised caravan slowly northwards up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital.

"I want that all of you participate. This is not for politics or personal gain, or to topple the government... this is to bring genuine freedom to the country," Khan said in a video message on the eve of the march.

© RAW 2022