Move FM Global News

TRIPOLI, Libya – Horrific scenes continue to unfold in flood-swept Libya which is being described as an unprecedented catastrophe.

As the death toll zoomed past 6,000 on Wednesday the country was grappling to cope with the scale of the disaster.

Ccivil Aviation Minister in the east of the country, Abu Chkiouat called on the international community to provide assistance, admitting Libya doesn’t have the experience to deal with a calamity of this scope.

Flags are flying at half mast throughout the country.

“The Martyrs’ committee will identify the missing people and implement procedures for identifying and burial in accordance with Sharia and legal laws and standards,” Libya’s minister of state for cabinet affairs, Adel Juma said Wednesday.

Hit by massive rains from Storm Daniel, which earlier buffeted Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, Libya has quickly flooded.

“The loss is being felt across the country,” Malik Traina, a journalist with Al Jazeera said Wednesday in a report from Tripoli. Traina described the floods as an “unprecedented catastrophe.”

The population of Derna, one of the hardest hit cities, located on the coast 250 kilometres or 150 miles east of Benghazi, has been devastated following the collapse of two dams. 5,300 bodies have been recovered from that city alone with thousands more still unaccounted for. The toll of people injured has surpassed 7,000.

It is understood the dams were under-sized and had not been maintained for more than twenty years.

International support for Libya has been swift. France is sending a field hospital while Algeria has flown in eight planeloads of medical supplies, food, clothing and tents.

The UAE and Turkey have sent rescue teams which are already on the ground. 168 search and rescue teams and humanitarian aid from Turkey have arrived in or are enroute to Benghazi. Italy have sent a civil defense team.

The UN, the U.S., Egypt, France, Qatar, and Tunisia have too offered assistance.