The death toll from floods in Libya in one city alone stands at more than 1,500, a minister who visited the eastern port of Derna has told the BBC.
“I was shocked by what I saw, it’s like a tsunami,” Hisham Chkiouat, from the eastern-based government, said.
Much of Derna, which is home to about 100,000 people, is under water after two dams and four bridges collapsed.
Up to 10,000 people are recorded to be missing after the flooding as a result of Storm Daniel, the Red Crescent says.
The eastern cities of Benghazi, Soussa and Al-Marj have also been affected by the storm, which hit on Sunday.
Mr Chkiouat, the aviation minister and part of the eastern government’s emergency response committee, told BBC Newshour that the collapse of one of the dams to the south of Derna had dragged large parts of the city into the sea.
“A massive neighbourhood has been destroyed – there is a large number of victims, which is increasing each hour.
“Currently 1,500 dead. More than 2,000 missing. We don’t have accurate figures but it’s a calamity,” he said, adding that “the dam that collapsed hasn’t been maintained for a while.”
Ahead of the storm, the authorities in Derna had imposed an overnight curfew on Sunday ordering people not to leave their houses as part of precautionary measures.
Water engineering experts have told the BBC it is likely that the upper dam, around 12km (eight miles) from the city, failed first – its water sweeping down the river valley towards the second dam, which is estimated to be about one kilometre from the low-lying part of Derna, where neighbourhoods were inundated.
Raja Sassi, who survived along with his wife and small daughter, told the Reuters news agency: “At first we just thought it was heavy rain but at midnight we heard a huge explosion and it was the dam bursting.”
Libyan journalist, Noura Eljerbi, based in Tunisia, told the BBC she only found out that around 35 of her relatives who all lived in the same apartment block in Derna were still alive after reaching out to a local rescue team.
“They checked, the house has been destroyed but my family managed to get out before things got worse. They are safe now,” she says, though she is still waiting to talk to them directly.
Mr Chkiouat had told Reuters earlier that a quarter of the city had disappeared. —BBC
