The death toll from devastating floods that have hit eastern Libya could reach 20,000 in the port city of Darna alone, double what was previously thought, the city’s mayor was quoted as saying by Reuters and Agerpres on Thursday.

The waters captured part of the Libyan city of DarnaPhoto: AA/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia

“We expect a very large number of victims. It could be as high as 18,000-20,000 dead, based on the destroyed areas of Darna,” Mayor Abdulmenam al-Haiti told Al Arabiya channel on Wednesday night.

Almost a quarter of this eastern city was destroyed by floods after the dams protecting it collapsed due to heavy rains caused by Cyclone Daniele in the Mediterranean, which also hit Greece, causing devastating floods in Thessaly and other parts of the country.

Tariq al-Kharraz, another government official here, said hundreds of bodies were piled up in cemeteries because there were too few survivors to identify them.

He also said authorities expected most of the missing people, more than 10,000 according to preliminary estimates, to be found dead or their bodies never recovered after being washed out to sea.

“Unbelievable disaster” after floods in Libya

Rami Elshaheibi, one of the WHO’s representatives in Libya, described the situation in Darnah as an “unbelievable disaster”, while another official said many bodies were left where they had been washed away.

“The bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” he told Reuters after visiting the city.

Darna, a city of more than 100,000 before the start of the Libyan civil war, is crossed by two rivers that flow from the highlands to the south, and the city is usually protected by dams. But part of them gave way exactly at the place where they meet at a distance of 11.5 upstream of the city.

Local residents told reporters who arrived at the scene that entire families died or lost many relatives during the flood. The floods in Libya are the worst in the 21st century in terms of the number of deaths.

Turkey and other countries in the region have also announced they will send aid, but rescue efforts are being complicated by the fact that many international teams are already in Morocco to help people there after last Friday’s devastating earthquake.

But in Libya, rescue operations are also complicated by the fact that since 2011 the country has been practically divided into east and west, and public services have been largely destroyed.