An official reported on Monday that at least 150 people were killed in Libya as a result of the storm Daniel, which swept the Mediterranean.
“At least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm Daniel in Derna, the Jabal al-Akhdar region and the suburbs of Al-Marj,” Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the Benghazi-based administration in Libya, told AFP.
“This is besides the massive material damage that struck public and private properties,” he added.
He said the east-based government's prime minister, Oussama Hamad, and the head of a rescue committee, as well as other ministers, had travelled to Derna to assess the extent of the damage. Hamad's government which competes with a UN-brokered, internationally recognized transitional administration in Tripoli, declared Derna a "disaster area" on Monday.
Storm Daniel, which also hit parts of Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria in recent days, killing at least 27 people, has been described as "extreme in terms of the amount of water falling in a space of 24 hours" by experts.
The storm hit eastern Libya on Sunday afternoon, wreaking havoc on the coastal town of Jabal al-Akhdar as well as Benghazi, where a curfew was imposed and schools were suspended for several days.
Rescue teams were also deployed in Derna, which is located 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of Tripoli.
The city of 100,000 people is located in the wadi of the same-named river.
According to Massoud, East Libyan authorities "lost contact with nine soldiers during rescue operations" in the city.
