'Bodies are lying everywhere': Death toll in Libya floods crosses 3,000

More than 3,000 people have died from flash flooding caused by Storm Daniel in eastern Libya and 10,000 more are missing after entire neighbourhoods were swept away, according to officials.

The health minister of Libya's parliament-appointed government, Osman Abdulcelil, told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that most of the 3,000 deaths occurred in the city of Derna, where videos shared on social media appeared to show dozens of bodies covered in blankets on the pavements.

"I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere — in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings," Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and member of the emergency committee, also told Reuters by phone.

"The number of bodies recovered in Derna is more 1,000," he said. He expected the final toll would be "really, really big".

"I am not exaggerating when I say that 25 percent of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.".

Around 10,000 people are also thought to be missing following the major floods, an official from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.

"We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far," Tamer Ramadan, the head of the IFRC delegation in Libya, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunisia on Tuesday.

Ramadan also said "the death toll is huge and might reach thousands".

A day earlier, officials in the administration that runs the eastern part of the divided country said that at least 2,000 people had been killed by the floods, though it was not immediately clear what that estimate was based on.

Libya requires 'urgent ramp up' in aid

Libya is politically divided between east and west and public services have crumbled since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that prompted years of conflict.

After pummelling Greece last week, Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in Derna, and hitting other settlements along the coast, including Libya's second biggest city of Benghazi.

The internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas but has dispatched aid to Derna, with at least one relief flight leaving from the western city of Misrata on Tuesday, a Reuters journalist on the plane said.

The emergency medical supply plane is carrying 14 tons of supplies, medications, equipment, body bags and 87 medical and par amedical personnel, headed to Benghazi, the head of Libya's Government of National Unity Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah said on X.

"The news about the severe flooding in Libya is dismaying. Many dead and injured are expected, especially in the east," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X, saying the country was ready to help.

Meanwhile, Türkiye has sent rescue teams and humanitarian aid to Libya with three military cargo planes on Tuesday.

Egypt, Qatar, Iran and Italy were also among the countries that said they were ready to send aid. The United States also said it was coordinating with UN partners and Libyan authorities on how to assist relief efforts.

The former UN acting envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, urged quick foreign aid, saying the disaster "requires an urgent ramp up in international and regional assistance" in a post on X.