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Two babies are among 17 people who have died as rain and flooding from storm Florence continues to devastate the US east coast.

Both infants were killed by falling trees in North Carolina, Sky News reports.

In Gaston County, a three-month-old boy died when a large pine tree fell across a mobile home, police said. The child's father and mother were home but escaped unhurt.

It came after a mother and her eight-month-old child were killed when a massive tree crushed their brick house in Wilmington.

Officials said three people also died in separate, weather-related traffic accidents in South Carolina.

More than 30 inches (75cm) of rain has fallen across North and South Carolina since Friday, with tens of thousands of people evacuated from their homes.

Florence was downgraded from a hurricane soon after it made landfall on the US east coast.

However, while winds have weakened to about 35mph, the danger is now posed by torrential rain and flooding.

Hundreds of thousands of homes across North and South Carolina are without power and tens of thousands of people are in emergency shelters.

Forecasters fear that the coming days could bring the worst flooding in North Carolina's history as rivers swell towards record levels.