Floods have killed at least 2,300 people in the coastal city of Derna, Libyan emergency services said Tuesday, as local officials said around a quarter of the eastern city was wiped away when a dam burst.
Thousands more people were reported missing.
More than 5,000 people were still missing; while about 7,000 people were injured by the force of floodwaters that rushed down a normally dry river valley, said Osama Ali, spokesman for the Tripoli-based emergency services.
“The death toll is huge and might reach thousands,” Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunis.
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“We confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 persons so far.”
Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in settlements along Libya’s coast.