Libyan PM says 2,000 people believed dead in devastating flooding

Cairo: The head of one of Libya’s rival governments said Monday that 2,000 people are feared dead in flooding that swept through the eastern parts of the north African nation.

In a phone interview with al-Masar television station Monday, Prime Minister Ossama Hamad said that 2,000 were feared dead in the eastern city of Derna, and thousands of others are reported missing.

He said the floods have swept away entire neighbourhoods in Derna, which has been declared a disaster zone, after the country was hit by Mediterranean storm Daniel.

Othman Abduljaleel, the health minister of the east Libya government, announced the death toll Monday afternoon in a telephone interview on the Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya. He said at least 50 others were missing. Abduljaleel said the tally didn’t include the city of Derna declared a disaster zone where the situation remained unclear as of Monday afternoon.

The dead included 12 people in the eastern town of Bayda, the town’s main medical center said.

Another seven people were reported dead in the coastal town of Susa in northeastern Libya, according to the Ambulance and Emergency Authority.

Seven others were reported dead in the towns of Shahatt and Omar al-Mokhtar, the minister said.

One other person was confirmed dead Sunday. The man was stuck in his car and surrounded by floods in the eastern town of Marj, according to Walid al-Arfi, spokesperson for the government-run emergency response agency in eastern Libya. The Libyan Red Crescent said it lost contact with one of its workers as he attempted to help a stuck family in Bayda.

Dozens of others were reported missing, and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.