The death toll in Libya has risen to more than 11,300, as rescuers race against time to find an estimated 10,100 missing people.
The coastal city of Derna was particularly hard hit when two dams collapsed.
So far, nearly 20 percent of the city’s population has lost their lives.
Rescue teams are searching the destroyed buildings in the city, while divers are combing the coast.
– They are digging for the missing, but there are not enough diggers, Africa correspondent Yousra Al-Baqir says to Sky News.
– Burial in mass graves
Several hundred bodies were found
The city’s mayor, Abdel Moneim Al-Ghaithi, believes that the death toll may rise to 20,000 people in the city, depending on the size of the neighborhoods that were swept away by the water. He made this statement to Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday.
On Friday, hundreds of bodies were reportedly found along a beach in the city of Derna Sky News.
Search: Firefighters search for survivors in the ruins of the city of Derna. Photo: AFP/NTB
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The head of the rescue team from Malta, Natalino Bezzina, told the Times of Malta newspaper.
The crew must have first found several bodies in a cave on the beach, before later finding approximately 400 dead in the bay.
– Smells like death
The stench of rotting human corpses, sewage and brackish water has now settled in the city, and face masks are being distributed to everyone in the area to protect them from the overwhelming stench.
This was reported by the BBC correspondent in Derna, Anna Foster.
-It smells like death, it’s almost impossible to describe. “Sometimes it’s so powerful it turns your stomach,” Foster explains. BBC.
She reported that on Sunday morning, bodies were still drifting among the ruins of the city.
The reporter describes the horrific conditions on the streets of Derna. Wrecked cars were scattered like toy cars, while entire buildings were swept away.
I tried to warn
Several experts are said to have warned the government in Libya about floods, but they refused to evacuate civilians, British media reported.
The flood did not come without warning. Al-Baqir says that these dams have not been maintained for the past twenty years.
She explains that the dams that collapsed were built in the 1970s, and that many engineers expressed their concerns about the construction.
Meanwhile, several meteorologists are said to have warned of the risk of flooding.
– disaster
On Saturday morning, Norway time, donations from the World Health Organization arrived. The plane was loaded with 29 tons of medicine and other means that could help up to 250,000 people.
The country has also received many body bags, which have been urgently requested by rescue teams in recent days.
– This is a disproportionate disaster, says World Health Organization representative Ahmed Zouiten in a statement.
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