Up to 90 whales have died and 180 more are still stranded in a remote bay in southern Australia as a "challenging" rescue operation began on Tuesday.

Scientists said two large pods of long-finned pilot whales became stuck on sandbars in Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania's rugged and sparsely populated west coast.

Images showed shallow water thick with scores of the large slick-black mammals manoeuvering for space.

Government marine biologist Kris Carlyon said "about a third" of the animals were dead by Monday and rescuing survivors would be a "challenging" task likely to take several days.

Though mass whale strandings occur relatively often in Tasmania, such a large group has not been seen in the area for more than a decade.

Get the latest headlines: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/21/hundreds-whales-stranded-southern-australia/?WT.mc_id=tmg_youtube_offsite_televideo-youtubevideo_22SeptWhales&utm_source=tmgoff&utm_medium=tmg_youtube&utm_content=offsite_televideo&utm_campaign=tmg_youtube_offsite_televideo-youtubevideo_22SeptWhales

Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.