According to officials, at least 150 people were killed when freak floods hit eastern Libya on Monday after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece.
In images filmed by residents of the Libyan disaster area showed massive mudslides, collapsed buildings, and entire neighborhoods submerged under muddy water.
Libya's Prime Minister of the east-based government, Oussama Hamad, said that "more than 2,000 dead and thousands missing" in the city of Derna alone. Still, no medical sources or emergency services have confirmed such figures.
Although Hamad's comments have received considerable attention in eastern Libyan media, the total death tolls recorded from other locations are much lower.
"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," claimed Mohamed Massoud, a spokesperson for Hamad's Benghazi-based government, earlier.
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"This is besides the massive material damage that struck public and private properties," he told AFP.
Rescuers, supported by the army, were attempting to reach hundreds of residents who were still reportedly stuck in hard-to-reach places.
Authorities in East Libya "lost contact with nine soldiers during rescue operations," according to Massoud.
He claimed that to assess the severity of the destruction, Hamad, the chairman of a rescue committee, and other officials had traveled to Derna.
Storm Daniel, which recently wreaked havoc in regions of Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria, killing at least 27 people, has been dubbed "extreme in terms of the amount of water falling in a space of 24 hours" by experts.
