UPDATES DEATH TOLL, EDITS THROUGH
By Walid Abdullah and Moataz Wanees
TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) - The death toll from devastating floods in Libya’s eastern city of Derna has soared to 5,200, according to local authorities.
“Around 5,200 people were killed in Derna city alone,” Tareq al-Kharaz, a spokesman for the East Libya-based Interior Ministry, told Anadolu.
He said around 1,300 bodies have so far been buried after being identified by families.
“Entire families have vanished as a result of the deadly storm,” al-Kharaz said. “Many corpses could not be identified and were not buried.”
The Libyan spokesman expects the death toll in Derna to jump to over 10,000 amid massive damage to infrastructure in the city.
Libya’s Ambulance and Emergency Service had earlier put the death toll from the floods in Derna at 2,300 people and 5,000 others missing.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said early Tuesday that more than 10,000 people have been reported missing following the devastating floods in Libya.
Initial reports indicate that dozens of villages and towns were submerged by the deadly floods caused by Storm Daniel that struck eastern Libya on Sunday.
Local authorities in Derna said two dams have collapsed in the city, adding to the deadly floods.
“The network of roads and bridges in Derna has totally collapsed,” Al-Hussein Sweidan, head of the roads and bridges department in the Tripoli-based Libyan government, told Anadolu.
He estimated the cost of rebuilding the damaged roads and bridges in the city at around 300 million Libyan dinars ($67 million).
On Monday, Libya’s Presidency Council appealed to friendly countries and international aid groups to provide aid to the flood-stricken areas in the eastern region.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara