Ahmad Mismari, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army, reported that seven army personnel have also vanished during rescue operations.
An official from the North African nation of Libya stated on Monday that an estimated 2,000 people are presumed dead after the potent Mediterranean storm Daniel caused significant flooding in the port city of Derna in eastern Libya over the weekend.
Osama Hamad, the prime minister of Benghazi-based eastern Libya, told Al Masar TV that hundreds of people were still unaccounted for after entire neighbourhoods in Derna were destroyed by floodwaters.
According to Ahmad Mismari, a spokesman for the army, seven members of the Libyan National Army are believed to be missing.
The east Libyan government’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, earlier on Monday claimed a death toll of 27, stressing that this number did not include the casualties from Derna.
Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the administration in Benghazi, also confirmed to AFP that the accident had claimed at least 150 lives.
According to Massoud, the storm’s flooding and severe rainfall in Derna, the Jabal al-Akhdar region, and the suburbs of Al-Marj resulted in at least 150 fatalities.
At least 150 deaths have been reported as a result of building collapses, according to Kais Fhakeri, the head of the Red Crescent in Benghazi, who also noted that the death toll is anticipated to climb.
On Monday, Fhakeri told Reuters that “the situation is very catastrophic.”
Only a few days prior, Daniel pounded Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria, killing at least 14 people. The Libyan catastrophe followed. At least four people died on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, seven people died in Turkey, and at least three people died in Greece.
Authorities in Libya have proclaimed an emergency, three days of mourning, and a curfew in the affected towns, which include Benghazi, Sousse, Al Bayda, and Al-Marj. Businesses and schools have been told to close.
The interim prime minister of Tripoli, Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, has also proclaimed three days of mourning in memory of the deceased and designated the affected cities as “disaster areas.”
After the death of longstanding ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the nation of North Africa was divided into two rival administrations. This partition continued until 2014.
