Tripoli [Libya]: Over 5,000 people are presumed dead after two dams collapsed in northeastern Libya due to severe rainfall, dumping more water into already flooded areas, reported CNN.
During a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Tamer Ramadan, the leader of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya expressed grief over the situation and gave the numbers of those missing.
“The death toll is huge,” she said.
The interior ministry of Libya’s eastern government announced on Tuesday that at least 5,300 people were killed, according to state broadcaster LANA, reported CNN.
According to Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern administration, as many as 6,000 persons remain missing in the eastern city of Derna, which has suffered the worst of the devastation.
When he toured the city on Monday, he described the situation as “catastrophic.”
Authorities suspect that entire neighbourhoods in the city have been wiped away. Hospitals in Derna are no longer operational, and mortuaries are packed, according to Osama Aly, a spokeswoman for the Emergency and Ambulance Service.
He informed CNN that dead bodies had been put on the pavements outside mortuaries.
Videos on social media showed drowned cars, collapsed buildings, and torrents of water surging across streets. Storm Daniel swept away entire areas and ruined homes in a number of coastal towns, with the city of Derna “cut off completely” after two old dams burst.
This rain is the consequence of the leftovers of a very strong low-pressure system, officially called Storm Daniel by southeastern Europe’s national meteorological organisations, according to CNN.
Last week, the storm caused devastating flooding in Greece before moving into the Mediterranean and transforming into a tropical-like cyclone known as a medicane.
