A severe rainstorm battered the Ukrainian city of Odesa overnight, causing floods that killed at least nine people including a child in the southern port city, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.

Nearly two months' worth of rain fell in just seven hours, authorities said, with hundreds of rescuers working through the night to evacuate people from flooded areas, remove cars and pump water out of buildings.

An AFP journalist in the Black Sea city saw a bus and car collapsed into a sink hole as a result of the rain.

Zelensky described the situation as "horrific" and said one person was still unaccounted for.

Odesa resident Nadia Zakharchenko was returning home with her daughter when they were caught in the storm, she told AFP.

"It was complete chaos," she said.

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