Thank you for joining us today. This blog has now closed, read below if you want to catch up on all the news from Thursday July 31.

A multi-vehicle crash on the Sydney Harbour Bridge has caused traffic chaos during peak hour.

There are extensive delays in both directions of traffic.

Drivers on the Cahill Expressway should prepare for significant delays.

To avoid traffic delays, drivers are being told to consider using the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.

More to come ...

Investigators believe a charging laptop may have sparked the ferocious fire that left a woman with life-threatening facial burns in Queensland.

Specialist crews spent Thursday combing through the gutted downstairs level of the Outlook Pde home in Bray Park, confirming the fire likely began in the lower storey where the device had been left plugged in.

Neighbours, who rushed to help, described a terrifying scene.

“It was just bright as the sun, flames everywhere,” one witness told 7NEWS.

“Heard the lady crying, so rushed over to her, got her away because she was still quite close.”

The 45-year-old woman was found on the front lawn, covered in soot and suffering critical injuries to her face.

She remains in a serious but stable condition in the burns unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Police have declared a crime scene but confirmed the fire is not being treated as suspicious.

A police officer cycling to work has been seriously injured in a hit-and-run.

The 61-year-old man was off-duty when he was struck, and was found on the side of the Nepean Hwy at Seaford, in Melbourne’s southeast, about 6am.

He had serious injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.

“The driver did not stop at the scene,” Victoria Police said.

“The vehicle will have damage to the front and left side.”

Anyone who travelled on the Nepean Hwy between Frankston and Carrum about the time of the crash is urged to check their dashcam footage.

Investigations are ongoing.

A young man has died in a “targeted” shooting on Thursday.

A 21-year-old Wollert man was approached by an unknown man and shot in a laneway at Wollert, in Melbourne’s north, just before 9am.

The victim, who was known to police, died at the scene.

The suspected gunman fled the scene in a vehicle, before a burnt-out car was found on Army St in Reservoir, Victoria Police said.

Police are still working to determine whether the car is connected to the shooting in the lanway behind Champions Pde.

“Detectives believe the shooting was a targeted attack,” police said.

No arrests have been made, but investigations are ongoing.

Private investigators have uncovered a bone during their search for evidence linked to the 1973 disappearance of two young girls at Adelaide Oval.

Witnesses saw two girls being forcibly carried away by a man at the oval that day, 52 years ago, but no one has ever been charged over the suspected abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirste Gordon, 4.

The bone, which private investigators believe to be human, was found during a search of a Yatina property, in SA’s mid-north, once owned by former suspect Stanley Hart.

“This bone will be subjected to forensic testing to definitively confirm if it is in fact a human bone,” SA Police told www.20304050.best.

If the bone is confirmed as human, police said there would be further investigation to determine any links to the historic disappearance.

“The mere identification of the bone as human remains does not confirm that it is the remains of either Joanne or Kirste,” SA Police said.

“The investigation into the disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon remains open and is ongoing”.

The bone was handed to police by private investigator Bryan Littlely, who works with Joanne’s sister, Suzie, to bring awareness to cases of missing persons.

He previously told 7NEWS that while SA Police has wrapped up its line of inquiry at Hart’s old property, his team has not.

SA Police cannot yet say when the forensic testing results will be known.

Read more about Littlely’s search for evidence ​​​here​​​.

Anthony Koletti, the husband of late fraudster Melissa Caddick, has been charged.

He is accused of assaulting a 73-year-old woman in Vaucluse, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, about 10.30am last Wednesday.

The woman told police she was assaulted at Lighthouse Reserve but did not require medical treatment.

The reserve is a six-minute drive from the Dover Heights home where Caddick was last seen.

Koletti became publicly known following Caddick’s disappearance in 2020.

He has been granted bail to face the common assault charge at Downing Centre Local Court on September 5.

Read more about Caddick and Koletti here.

A man accused of shooting a woman in the leg has been charged over the alleged domestic violence attack in Sydney’s west.

The 29-year-old woman went to Liverpool Hospital with a gunshot wound in her right thigh about 8.40pm on Sunday.

An NSW Police investigation involving the Domestic Violence High Risk Offender team was launched.

A 38-year-old man was stopped while driving on the Hume Hwy south of Goulburn and arrested.

Police will allege the man shot the 29-year-old woman in Panania.

He faces 11 charges, including four in relation to domestic violence and four in relation to drug supply and posession.

He was refused bail to appear before the Bail Division Court on Thursday.

A woman is fighting for life with facial injuries suffered in a house fire.

The 45-year-old woman was pulled from the blaze on Outlook Pde at Bray Park about 10.15pm on Wednesday.

She was the sole occupant of the two-storey home and had suffered both smoke inhalation and burns.

She was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital for treatment.

The lower part of the home was well alight when five firefighting crews arrived at the scene, but the fire was brought under control within 10 minutes, Queensland Fire Department said.

Queensland Police forensic specialists and fire investigators will examine the damaged home on Thursday.

A light plane crash has killed a pilot in rural Toowoomba.

The 56-year-old man crashed a glider plane into a field near Wainui Soldiers Rd at Bowenville about 6.30pm on Wednesday.

He was the only person in the aircraft, and died of critical injuries at the scene.

The crash occurred near the Darling Downs Soaring Club, a club for flying gliders and sailplanes.

Investigations into the crash are ongoing.