This handout picture provided by the office of Libya’s Benghazi-based interim prime minister on September 11, 2023 shows a view of a destroyed vehicle by damaged buildings in the eastern city of Derna, about 290 kilometres east of Benghazi, in the wake of the Mediterranean storm “Daniel”. AFPPIX: At least 150 people were killed when freak floods hit eastern Libya, officials said Monday, after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece.
Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for Hamad’s Benghazi-based administration, said earlier that “at least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm Daniel in Derna, Jabal al-Akhdar region and the suburbs of Al-Marj”. He said Hamad and the head of a rescue committee as well as other ministers had travelled to Derna to evaluate the extent of the damage.
A Derna city council official described the situation in the city as “catastrophic” and in need of “national and international intervention”, speaking to the local TV channel Libya al-Ahrar. The United Nations mission in Libya on Monday said on X, formerly Twitter, that it was “closely following the emergency caused by severe weather conditions in the eastern region of the country”.