Vita gazette – The number of deaths in the flood in Derna, Libya has reached 3 thousand. The Red Cross announced that the number of missing people reached 10 thousand.

The storm swept in from the Mediterranean on Sunday (10 September), destroying buildings and swamping roads in the city. A massive storm has wreaked havoc in northeastern Libya, claiming around 3,000 lives and leaving as many as 10,000 people missing. Health Minister Othman Abduljalil visited the worst-affected city of Derna, describing it as a “ghost town.” The deluge resulted in the collapse of two dams, exacerbating the flooding and destroying entire neighborhoods.

Making new statements after the disaster in which thousands of people were lost, the Minister of Health of the government in eastern Libya said that the number of deaths in the flood in the city of Derna reached 3 thousand. Red Cross announced that the number of missing people in the flood disaster in Libya reached 10 thousand.

Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the interim government in Tripoli, declared three days of mourning in all the affected cities, calling them “disaster areas”.

Officials in Libya have declared disaster areas in the country after deadly flooding from Storm Daniel inundated the city of Derma over the weekend.

As many as 2,000 people may have been drowned after a powerful storm unleashed catastrophic floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, according to the head of one of the country’s two rival governments.

Speaking on Libyan network Almasar, Ossama Hamad, prime minister of the east-based government, reported “more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing” in the city of Derna alone, after torrential rains over the weekend brought by Mediterranean storm Daniel. No medical sources or emergency services have confirmed such figures.

A spokesperson for the Libyan army in the east, Maj Gen Ahmed Al-Mismari, suggested that as many as 5,000 to 6,000 were missing in the city, which has a population of 100,000.

The precise number dead is hard to gauge with communications down and administration hampered by a decade-long battle for power between two rival governments each backed by their own militias.

While Storm Daniel is expected to hit some regions in the west of Egypt later, authorities warned the public about heavy rain and bad weather conditions.

Storm Daniel is part of a gigantic low-pressure system that previously brought catastrophic flooding to Greece. Known as a medicane, short for “Mediterranean hurricane,” this rare weather phenomenon exhibits characteristics similar to both hurricanes and extratropical cyclones. While not as powerful as hurricanes, medicanes can bring heavy rainfall, strong winds, and flooding to affected areas. They are most common during the autumn and winter months.