The international Red Crescent humanitarian group says at least 150 people are dead in Libya, with reports of hundreds more feared dead, as torrential rains from the powerful Mediterranean Storm Daniel swept through the eastern part of the country Sunday and Monday.
Video posted to social media showed streets turned to raging rivers in the cities of Benghazi, Sousse, Al Bayda, Al-Marj and Derna.
A spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent told Reuters that 150 people were killed in the eastern city of Derna after a building collapsed. Authorities believe the toll could reach 250 after water levels reportedly rose to 3 meters.
Media reports say two dams collapsed in the city of about 100,000 people, with entire neighborhoods washed away.
Libyan Prime Minister Ossama Hamad told Libya’s Al Masar television that 2,000 people were feared dead in Derna alone, with thousands of others believed to be missing. He declared the city a disaster area.
Hamad did not give a source for his data, and news agencies were not able to verify the figures in a country politically split east and west with two rival administrations, and where public services have crumbled since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Daniel is expected to arrive in parts of west Egypt on Monday. The country's meteorological authorities warned about possible rain and bad weather. The storm caused deadly flooding in Greece last week.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
