Death toll from storm “Daniel” in Libya has so far risen to 5,300  

The Libyan Ministry of Interior announced that the death toll from torrents and floods, which swept through the city of Derna in Libya due to the storm “Daniel” that struck the country last Sunday, has so far risen to 5,300.

The Ministry’s media official Mohamed Abo Lamoucha said in a statement to the Libyan News Agency : there are thousands of missing people as a result of the disaster, stressing the continuation of search and rescue operations for the missing and the people who stuck and affected by the disaster, calling for an international intervention to assist in the rescue effort and protect those affected by the unprecedented floods.

Earlier yesterday, an official at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Tareq Ramadan said: “we do not have final figures for the number of deaths currently, but the death toll is huge and may reach to thousands, while the number of missing people has reached to 10,000 people”.

Last Sunday, a Mediterranean storm called “Daniel” struck east of Libya, especially the coastal Jabal Al Akhdar , while the Presidential Council in Libya announced in a statement that Derna , Shaht and al Bayda in Barqa in the east are disaster areas due to the torrents that swept them.

Souha Suleiman