'Death Toll Could Go Up To 20,000'

Confirmed death tolls given by officials in Libya have varied, all are in the thousands, with thousands more on lists of the missing

Libyan authorities demanded an investigation on Thursday into whether human failings were to blame for thousands of deaths in the worst natural disaster in the country's modern history, as survivors searched for loved ones washed away by floods.

A torrent unleashed by a powerful storm burst dams on Sunday night and hurtled down a seasonal riverbed that bisects the eastern city of Derna, washing multi-storey buildings into the sea with sleeping families inside.

Derna mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi said deaths in the city could already reach 18,000-20,000, based on the extent of the damage.

Health authorities have put the death toll in Derna at 5,500 as of Thursday morning.

Ghaithi said he was afraid the city would now be infected with an epidemic, "due to the large number of bodies under the rubble and in the water". "We actually need teams specialised in recovering bodies," he told Reuters in Derna.