Image source, Reuters

The Red Crescent is currently working to retrieve the thousands of bodies of victims that were washed out to sea in the Derna flood.

Many are washing up on the coastline of nearby towns. The head of the Libyan Red Crescent media centre in Derna, Salem al-Naas, says this is due to the "strong winds that were blowing that night".

"This is what we saw with our bare eyes," he says.

"We are still pulling bodies from houses and from under the rubble up to this moment," al-Naas adds.

Yasmine Shaheen
BBC News Arabic in al-Sharif, Egypt

On Wednesday morning, the people of al-Sharif lined the main street, forming a guard of honour for the ambulances making their way to the village cemetery. This community in northern Egypt has been devastated by the floods in Libya.

Seventy-four young men from al-Sharif are known to have died in the disaster. They were working in Libya in the hope of making some money to build a better life back home.

“My three sons, all in their 20s, died,” says Jumaa al-Sayyid, a 50-year-old farmer, struggling to fight back the tears. He had helped them raise the money to travel to Libya.

Another 100 people from the village who were living in Derna are still unaccounted for. One person praying for news is Raya Faisal. “I beg to God that my boys are still alive,” she says. “What will happen to me if they are really gone?”

Read the full story here.

Tarik Habte
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

As the world tries to understand the reasons for the catastrophic floods in Libya, there are growing concerns that the condition of dams played a role.

An urban planning engineer who has worked in Libya for more than four decades has told BBC that "the dams should not have collapsed", adding that "there should have been a mechanism to relieve the water" from extreme rainfall.

The two dams that collapsed sent massive amounts of water racing towards the city of Derna, sweeping away vast swathes of land - and people - in its wake.

Kanakis Mandalios, who founded a Greek construction company, says he presented proposals for a complete infrastructure overhaul of Derna's neighbouring city Benghazi.

He cites a lack of urban planning as a contributing factor to the scale of the disaster, and says no city plans for Libya have been drawn up since 1997.

He says unauthorised settlements around the dam may have also affected the flow of water, adding that reconstruction efforts will now "present an opportunity to prevent something like this happening again".

The authorities in Derna have not commented on these claims but we will continue to bring you the latest here.

Image source, EPA

Victims of the Derna floods that were washed out to sea are drifting on to beaches more than 100km away (60 miles), says a resident of the city of Tobruk to the east.

Nasir Almnsori, an engineer living in the city more than 150km from Derna, told BBC Breakfast that flood victims were washing up nearby.

Some of Almnsori's family died in Derna, and the three that survived have made the journey to Tobruk to stay with relatives.

He says with so much of the city destroyed, there is nothing left for them in Derna.

"They have no houses there to live in, so that is why they moved to my city," he said.

Let's take a step back for a moment and remind ourselves how the devastation from Libya's huge floods unfolded in recent days.

• Sunday 10 September - catastrophic flooding is triggered after rains from powerful Storm Daniel burst two dams above the Mediterranean city of Derna
• Monday 11 - Tuesday 12 September - the devastating fallout from the huge flooding becomes clear, with whole neighbourhoods washed away in the port city
• More than 10,000 people are missing and thousands more are displaced, Libyan officials estimate
• Wednesday 13 September - some foreign aid arrives in the country, but Libya's prime minister says his country "will only accept aid that is necessary”
• Libya's disaster response is criticised for being too slow due to two competing governments which have been vying for power for over a decade
• Thursday 14 September - the death toll rises significantly as the Red Crescent in Derna says 11,000 have died, while the mayor of Derna estimates that figure to be 18,000 to 20,000
• The United Nations says that "we could have avoided most of the human casualties" if warnings had been issued in Libya and evacuations had taken place
• The UN also warns that disease from the contaminated water is the next threat for people affected by the disaster

Rescue and recovery teams are facing enormous logistical challenges in Derna as they operate without basic infrastructure.

Bashir Ben Amir from the International Rescue Committee says just one entry point to Derna is accessible because the others are too badly damaged by the floods.

Upon arrival in the city, teams are working without electricity, water or fuel, and with unreliable phone reception.

"Our teams are working day and night, but the needs are high and are mounting day after day," he told BBC Breakfast this morning.

"We need to secure the lowest standards of logistics to be able to operate," he said.

Anna Foster
Reporting from Benghazi

Image source, EPA

The power of the water unleashed by the dams has changed the landscape - words like "wasteland" are being used because it's simply carved the earth away.

When I arrived the arrivals hall at Benghazi airport was empty and echoing when it should have been bustling with aid arriving - but because of the political situation, it is not.

The situation reminds me of the difference between the aid that reached Turkey following a devastating earthquake earlier this year, and the fact that far less aid was able to be taken in to Syria due to the political situation there.

It's not a lack of will from the international community, it's simply the logistical problems and infighting this country battles with after so many years of conflict.

There are calls to establish a sea corridor to bring in relief and potentially evacuate some of the survivors. There are also rumours of attempt to entirely evacuate Derna, which we’re watching closely.

Image source, Reuters

Mariam Algwithi and her three siblings escaped the surging floodwaters in Derna by taking refuge on the roof of their building.

As the torrents raged below, Algwithi describes watching other buildings collapse around them.

"[Other people] were on the roof waving with their phones and flash on and then suddenly the building collapsed on them," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

"At that moment, we realised actually we might die. And we were feeling, earthquake, earthquake, so we thought an earthquake. But it was actually the buildings collapsing one after the other," she said.

Why was damage to Derna so catastrophic?published at 07:21 British Summer Time 15 September 2023

07:21 BST 15 September 2023

Record rainfall - Storm Daniel brought more than 400mm of rain to parts of Libya’s north-east coast within a 24-hour period.

That is an extraordinary deluge of water for a region which usually sees about 1.5mm throughout the whole of September, and Libya's National Meteorological Centre says it is a new rainfall record.

Two dams overwhelmed - two dams near Derna burst under pressure from Storm Daniel's intense rainfall and several experts have highlighted the possible role that political instability in Libya has played in their upkeep.

A research paper published last year on the hydrology of the Wadi Derna Basin highlighted that the area "has a high potential for flood risk" and the dams "needed periodic maintenance".

However, experts say it's too early to know whether the extreme rainfall was simply too much for the dams to handle, or whether the condition of the structures also played a role.

Read more on this story here.

Joel Gunter
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Husam Abdelgawi, a 31-year-old accountant in the city of Derna, describes the sight outside his house when the floodwater hit as a "ghastly, unimaginable scene, worse than death itself to witness".

"The bodies of women and children were floating past us. Cars and entire houses were caught up in the current. Some of the bodies were swept by the water into our house,” he says.

Rahma Ben Khayal, an 18-year-old student who made it to safety on a rooftop in the city, says: "Derna was divided in two halves by the water and everything in between is gone."

Amna al-Ameen Absais, a 23-year-old medical student born and raised in Derna, says her street disappeared completely and "it was like the Earth had split open".

There was “only a cavity left where the street used to be”, she adds.

Read more tales from survivors here.

Satellite images show the scale of destruction in the Libyan port of Derna after floodwaters swept away bridges, streets and communities - leaving thousands of people missing or dead.

Image source, .

In the nearby neighbourhood of al-Eilwa, around 96% of properties were reported to have been flooded.

Many properties which stood near the river have disappeared, leaving only their foundations visible.

Image source, .

See more aerials images from the BBC’s Visual Journalism team in this story.

Libya has been split between rival governments in the east and west for around a decade.

The country was under foreign control for centuries until it gained independence in 1951 and came under the control of dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.

He ruled autocratically until he was toppled and killed in 2011 - in a rebellion assisted by Western military intervention.

In 2014, renewed fighting broke out, with Libya split between two administrations - one based in the east, and one in the west in the capital Tripoli.

The two sides signed a ceasefire in 2020, but political rivalries continue.

In 2021, a Government of National Unity was formed in Tripoli with Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh as the internationally recognised prime minister, but the following year the eastern-based parliament formed a rival - and rather similarly named - Government of National Stability.

Read more: Libya country profile

Image source, .

Anna Foster
Reporting from Benghazi

Image source, Getty Images

At the nearest airport to the worst affected city of Derna, you'd expect a steady stream of equipment and rescue workers arriving.

But the tarmac I saw was quiet, with nowhere near the column of support that a natural disaster on this scale needs.

I watched one small team arrive, carrying little more equipment than boxes of face masks.

Getting permission to enter the country is difficult and the fractured political system split between rival governments means checkpoints and the potential of violence are a threat on the road to Derna.

The World Health Organization has called the situation "unprecedented", and there are real fears for the survivors.

Many thousands are displaced in a country whose infrastructure is already ravaged by more than a decade of conflict.

The international medical corps says infectious disease is now a risk, and more body bags are urgently needed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has told the BBC that medical supplies are urgently needed in several places including the worst-hit city of Derna and will "need to scale up very, very urgently".

Rick Brennan, the WHO's emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean region which includes Libya, said many health facilities had not been functioning well even before the storm.

"A large proportion of those health facilities were already poorly stocked, poorly staffed," he said.

The WHO, he said, was in a position to lead the collaborative efforts of other aid agencies but that was being delayed because of Libya's two governments in the west and the east.

There were issues around getting clearance from the government to get aid going to where it was needed, he noted.

"Most of the early response to any big crisis like this is done by the local community... but we... the international community, we need to come in behind them and provide the support at scale that's proportionate to these massive needs," he said.

The water was brought by Storm Daniel which hit Libya on Sunday.

The storm - a Mediterranean hurricane-like system known as a medicane - brought more than 400mm of rain to parts of the north-east coast within a 24-hour period.

That is an extraordinary deluge of water for a region which usually sees about 1.5mm throughout the whole of September.

Libya's National Meteorological Centre says it is a new rainfall record.

Satellite data shows the extent of some of the rainfall across the region - although in many places the amount recorded on the ground was higher.

It's too early to attribute with certainty the severity of this storm to rising global temperatures.

However, climate change is thought to be increasing the frequency of the strongest medicanes.

Prof Liz Stephens, an expert in climate risks and resilience at Reading University in the UK, says scientists are confident that climate change is supercharging the rainfall associated with such storms.

• Why damage to Derna was so catastrophic

Our colleagues at BBC Verify have been monitoring video and satellite images of Derna - before and after the port was hit.

In this video, Rajini Vaidyanathan explains how the flood occurred and the possible extent of the damage it caused.

It’s important that we state that information on this story is still emerging - an issue made all the more challenging as Libya has no single operating government.

Yesterday, we received varying figures on the numbers of dead and missing - though all the numbers were in the thousands.

Libya's ambassador to the UN said about 6,000 people were confirmed to have died. But a Red Crescent representative put that number higher, at 11,300.

Marie el-Drese also told the AP news agency that a further 10,000 people were still missing -lower than the 20,000 a different Red Crescent spokesperson gave on Thursday.

More bleak still was an estimate from Derna's mayor, who warned that as many as 20,000 people might have lost their lives - based on an assessment of the damage.

Joel Gunter
BBC News

As Sunday night wore on, the rain got heavier. Sirens sounded.

"It really began about 2.30am," Amna Al Ameen Absais, a 23-year-old medical student born and raised in Derna, said in a phone interview from the nearby city of Tobruk.

"The noise was getting much louder. My brother said he could see water covering the street."

As the water rose, the neighbours began to migrate upstairs. Amna grabbed the cat and four passports and they went up from their first floor apartment to a third floor apartment.

"People were looking outside into the dark, praying," she said.

Then the water reached the third floor.

"Everyone started screaming. We moved up again, to the fifth floor and finally up to the seventh floor."

Panic had set in. "I lost the cat," Amna said.

"I lost my little brother for a minute but then I found him. I realised we could not even stay on the seventh floor, we had to go to the rooftop."

From there, they could see neighbours on the roof of a three-storey building opposite, including a family with whom they were friends. The neighbours were waving their phone torches. Moments later, their entire building collapsed into the water in the dark.

Read more tales from survivors here.

Parts of Derna, population 100,000, were submerged after two dams burst on Sunday during a hurricane-strength storm.

Eyewitness footage showed a torrent of water flowing past a mosque in the city, causing massive destruction.

The Libyan Red Crescent says the number of people who died in Derna has risen to 11,000.

That figure is expected to grow as the recovery effort continues and more bodies are retrieved from the mud.

Officials estimate that about 30,000 people have been left homeless. Politicians are demanding an official investigation into the flooding.

Many Libyans have blamed poor infrastructure maintenance.

The UN has also criticised the country's alert system.

The head of the World Meteorological Organisation said most of the casualties could have been avoided if residents had been warned and given time to escape.