Libyans search for family after devastating floods.

Heavy rains have breached dams above the city, and floodwaters have swept away coastal residential areas in Libya. Many high-rise buildings collapsed while families were sleeping.

Libyan citizens search for loved ones in the rubble. Photo: Reuters

Usama Al Husadi, a 52-year-old driver, has been searching for his wife and five children since the disaster. “I’ve been walking around looking for them… I’ve been to all the hospitals and schools but haven’t had any luck,” he said. “We’ve lost at least 50 family members.”

The beach is now littered with clothes, toys, furniture, shoes, and other belongings swept away from the houses by the floodwaters. The streets are submerged in deep mud, littered with uprooted trees and hundreds of damaged cars, many of them overturned.

“My wife and I survived, but I lost my sister,” said Mohamed Mohsen Bujmila, a 41-year-old engineer. “My sister lived in the city center, where most of the destruction occurred. We found the bodies of her husband and son and have buried them.”

Derna was once a densely populated city, built along the river. Now it is nothing but a pile of rubble.

The death tolls given by officials so far vary widely, but all are in the thousands. Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the Civil Aviation Minister of the eastern Libyan government, said that so far, more than 5,300 deaths have been recorded and indicated that this number is likely to rise significantly in the coming days.

Tariq Kharaz, a spokesman for the eastern government, said 3,200 bodies had been found and 1,100 of them remained unidentified.

Mayor Derna Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi told Al Arabiya television that the death toll in the city could reach 18,000 to 20,000 based on the number of districts devastated by the floods.

Trung Kien (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/nguoi-dan-libya-tim-kiem-gia-dinh-sau-lu-lut-so-nguoi-chet-co-the-len-toi-20000-post264553.html