Libya floods – latest updates: Number of dead soars to 11,300 – as desperate search for survivors continues amid devastation

By admin On Sep 15, 2023

Key points

Alex Crawford:

Yousra Elbagir:

15:00:01 Muslims in Egypt perform absentee funeral prayer for flood victims

Muslims in Egypt have performed an absentee funeral prayer for the victims of Libya’s flooding and the Morocco earthquake that have collectively claimed thousands of lives and were a few days apart.

“All the Egyptian people offer their condolences and express their grief,” over the calamities that have hit the North African countries, said worshipper Saeed Ragab.

Two dams collapsed in Libya following exceptionally heavy rains from Mediterranean Storm Daniel early on Monday, sending a wall of water several metres high gushing down a valley that cuts through the city of Derna.

At least 10,000 people remained missing and feared dead in the flooding that had already killed more than 11,000.

In Morocco, 6.8 magnitude quake last week killed nearly 3,000 people, with several thousand injuries.

It was the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years.

14:34:52 Eyewitness: The ‘utterly dreadful’ moment a young girl’s body is recovered by a digger’s scoop

By Alex Crawford, special correspondent in Libya

There’s a lot of activity down at the port in Derna.

The normally blue Mediterranean Sea has turned a murky brown.

There are clusters of relief workers gathered round watching a digger tear into the mountains of flotsam at the water’s edge.

Among the debris there are upside-down smashed-up cars in different twisted states.

They look as if some angry giant toddler has thrown them all there in a childish rage.

We watch as the metal bucket of the digger sifts through the ugly leftovers of this tragedy.

The sea has a blanket of chipped wood, broken-off metal, bits of wardrobe, and folded sodden mattresses now covering it.

At least that’s what I can make out. Much of the debris bears no resemblance at all to its original state.

The digger operator is methodically trying to toss this all to one side.

He is looking for bodies. There are divers on dinghies bobbing up and down on the waves who are also scouring the water and an Italian naval ship positioned off the coast which has been helping recover those washed out to sea as the water smashed its way down Derna’s valley.

With various relief workers hanging off the side of his cab and standing like sentinels on the back of the metal casing, the scoop is suddenly filled with the unmistakeable shape of a small human.

There’s a collective intake of horror as the momentum of the machine causes two thin legs to flop over the teeth of the digger’s scoop for a brief few yet completely horrifying seconds before falling back inwards.

It is the corpse of a young child- maybe 10 or 11. Everyone witnessing this truly awful scene is stunned into silence.

It is entirely and utterly dreadful. Two relief workers race down carrying a black body bag and the child – who looks like a girl – is hurriedly tucked into it.

They race back up the hill to deposit the body into the back of an ambulance. It’s not clear why they’re scrambling but it crosses my mind they might just be saving those looking on from further trauma after a monumentally traumatic six days.

There are still an estimated 10,000 or so unaccounted for here. So much trauma yet to come.

14:10:01 Search and rescue workers wade through water surrounded by twisted metal and flooded cars

A Turkish disaster and emergency agency has released footage showing its teams on the ground in Libya, aiding in the search and rescue work.

The clip showed personnel from Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) wading through water as they helped in the search efforts.

They were surrounded by heaps of twisted metal and flooded cars as they assessed the damage in areas affected by the flooding.

Authorities have warned disease and explosives shifted by the waters could claim more lives as the number of people killed by the floods rose to 11,300.

13:53:45 Amnesty International calls for investigations into ‘failure to protect right to life’

Amnesty International has called for investigations to be launched into Libya’s “failure to protect the right to life” when Storm Daniel hit.

In a video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, the organisation said tens of thousands of people are still missing and volunteers have been “working tirelessly” to help those in need.

“Aid efforts in the war-torn country are being slowed down by the severe damage,” it added.

“Impartial investigations must be conducted over the failure to protect the right to life.”

13:29:01 Watch: ‘Residents weren’t warned’ of flooding risks

In Derna, our Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir has been speaking to residents.

The town has been hard hit by flooding caused by Cyclone Daniel.

People have told her they were not warned of the risk of a nearby dam collapsing due to the heavy rainfall.

“Just in the matter of moments residents say they heard a loud explosion,” she says.

12:50:48 Libya in desperate need of equipment to find trapped survivors, says UN

More equipment is needed to help rescue workers find people trapped in sludge and damaged buildings, the UN aid chief has said.

Survivors also need primary healthcare to prevent a cholera outbreak, Martin Griffiths said.

“Priority areas are shelter, food, key primary medical care because of the worry of cholera, the worry of lack of clean water,” he told a UN briefing in Geneva.

The UN humanitarian office has sent a disaster coordination team of 15 people to Libya who have been redeployed from Morocco, which suffered an earthquake last week.

12:39:22 Rescue workers sift through homes

Search and rescue teams have been deployed in the city of Derna, which was hardest-hit by the flooding.

More than 10,000 people are still missing days later, and hopes of finding survivors are fading.

Here are the latest images from our team on the ground.

12:20:21 Drone footage shows flood-hit Libya

Shocking drone footage reveals the extent of destruction in the eastern port city of Derna, with entire areas levelled.

12:13:41 Blocks of flats completely levelled

In her latest update from Derna, our special correspondent Alex Crawford is standing exactly where a nine-storey block of flats used to be.

“It’s just been levelled,” she says. “Behind me are many more blocks of flats, all pancaked, smashed out the way. You can just see the foundations here.”

The force of the water was so strong that whole apartment blocks were swept away, she says.

Parts of bridges have been moved and the road has also disappeared.

12:00:31 38,640 people displaced by flooding

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Libya has said 38,640 people have been displaced in the most affected areas in the northeast of the country.

“Over 5,000 are presumed dead, with a total of 3,922 deaths having been registered in hospitals, according to WHO sources,” the IOM said on its website.

A total of 11,300 people were confirmed dead by authorities late yesterday.

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