Hundreds of bodies recovered from Libyan city devastated by floods as death toll crosses 2,000

Rescue teams in eastern Libya have retrieved hundreds of bodies from the rubble in a coastal city that has been inundated by devastating floods, a humanitarian agency said Tuesday.

Authorities estimated that as many as 2,000 people are believed dead in the city of Derna.

Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods in many towns in eastern Libya. But the worst destruction was in Derna, where heavy rainfall and floods broke dams and washed away entire neighbourhoods, authorities said.

Ossama Hamad, prime minister of the east Libya government, said that several thousands of people were missing in the city and many of them were believed to have been carried away after two upstream dams burst.

After more than a decade of chaos, Libya remains divided between two rival administrations — one in the east and one in the west, each backed by militias and foreign governments. The conflict has left the oil rich country with crumbling and inadequate infrastructure.

The Libyan Red Crescent said early Tuesday that its teams counted more than 300 people dead in Derna. The government in east Libya declared the city a disaster zone.

More bodies were still under the rubble in the city’s neighbourhoods, or washed away to the sea, according to east Libya's Health Minister, Othman Abduljaleel.

Derna residents posted videos online showing major devastation. Entire residential blocks were erased along Wadi Derna, a river that runs down from the mountains through the city centre. Multi-story apartment buildings that once stood well back from the river were partially collapsed into mud.

Abduljaleel said the city was inaccessible and dead bodies were scattered across it, according to Libya’s state-run news agency. He said there wasn’t an exact death toll as of Monday night in Derna, but the tally is expected to exceed 2,000 as teams combed through the rubble.

“The situation was more significant and worse than we expected. An international intervention is needed,” he was quoted as saying.

Residents said they buried more than 200 bodies in one cemetery on Monday. Footage overnight showed dozens of more bodies lying on the ground in a hospital yard in Derna.

Storm Daniel hit other areas in eastern Libya, including the town of Bayda, where about 50 people were reported dead. Other towns affected included Susa, Marj and Shahatt, according to the government. Hundreds of families were displaced and took shelter in schools and other government buildings in Benghazi and other towns in eastern Libya.

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