At least 2,300 people were killed in catastrophic floods that swept through the Libyan city of Derna on Tuesday.
As global alarm grew, numerous governments promised to send aid and rescue teams to the war-torn country, which had been overwhelmed by what one UN official described as a "calamity of epic proportions."
Massive devastation destroyed Derna, a Mediterranean coastal city of around 100,000 people, where multi-story structures on river banks fell, and houses and cars vanished in the roaring seas.
Emergency agencies under the internationally recognized administration of the divided country estimated an initial death toll of around 2,300 in Derna alone, with over 5,000 people still missing and over 7000 others injured.
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However, officials from the rebel government in eastern Libya reported "thousands" more died in the Derna floods and that the death toll could exceed 10,000.
Storm Daniel, which landed in Libya on Sunday after hitting Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey earlier, caused the floods.
Derna, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Benghazi, is surrounded by hills and divided by a generally dry river in summer but has turned into a raging torrent of mud-brown water that has taken away three important bridges.
"The death toll is enormous and could reach thousands," Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said, adding that 10,000 people were still missing.
Libyan television footage showed scores of victims wrapped in blankets or sheets in Derna's main square waiting to be identified and buried and more bodies in Martouba hamlet to the southeast.
More than 300 victims were buried on Monday, but many more were believed to be lost in the river that empties into the Mediterranean.
