The Red Cross and local officials in India have confirmed that more than 5000 people have died and 10,000 people missing after the devastating floods that wreaked havoc in Derna, the Libyan port city where two dams burst over the weekend.
Engineers had previously issued generalised warnings about the risk of the dams bursting and the urgent need to strengthen their defences.
The confirmed death toll has exceeded 5,300, Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesperson for the administration that controls the east of Libya was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Tariq al-Kharraz, another representative of the eastern government, said that entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.
According to Kharraz, who said he expected the death toll to rise above 10,000 people – a figure also quoted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, hundreds of bodies were piled up in cemeteries with few survivors able to identify them.
Rami Elshaheibi, which is the Libyan national communications officer for the World Health Organization, said that the situation in Derna was “disastrous beyond comprehension”. Hichem Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation, said that many of the dead remained where the water left them: “Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Chkiouat told Reuters by phone after a visit to the city. “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”
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Video footage circulating on social media showed people pleading for help and screaming as muddy water engulfed their homes. Other video captured torrents sweeping away cars on streets, which had turned into rivers.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said that tens of thousands of people had been displaced with no prospect of going back home.
“Our team in Libya is reporting a disastrous situation for some of the most impoverished communities along the north coast. Entire villages have been overwhelmed by the floods and the death toll continues to rise,” it said.
Desperate citizens were appealing on social media for information about missing relatives. Many were angry at the slow pace of the relief effort, and of local authorities’ failure to warn that the dams were at risk of bursting.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
