The mayor of Derna, Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi, suggests that the death toll in the Libyan city following a devastating flood could potentially reach 20,000, based on extensive destruction observed in the region.

The estimated number of deaths in the Libyan city of Derna after catastrophic floods could reach 20,000, based on the number of wiped-out districts, Derna’s mayor, told Al-Arabiya TV on Wednesday.

“The number [of deaths] keeps rising… it could reach 18,000 or 20,000,” Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi said.

He said this estimate was based on the scale of destruction in the eastern region, particularly as entire neighbourhoods were swept away in Derna.

Backing those numbers, the director of the medical centre of the eastern town of Al-Bayda, Abdul Rahim Mazeq, put the death toll from the floods as high as 20,000, according to comments made to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

He said that hospitals were no longer able to accommodate the bodies of the victims.

A spokesperson for the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls eastern Libya, Ahmed Al-Mismari, told the newspaper on Wednesday that the death toll has exceeded 7,000 – up from figures he had given to local media the previous day.

The New Arab Staff

Reports have suggested that a quarter of the city of Derna – which has a population of around 100,000 – has been obliterated by the flooding.

An official with the UN’s World Health Organisation in Libya said the fatalities could reach 7,000, given the number of people still missing.

“The numbers could surprise and shock all of us,” the official, who was not authorised to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP.

The storm also killed around 170 people in other parts of eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, Um Razaz and Marj, the health minister said.