Death toll from Libya flood could hit 20,000

International aid is slowly starting to reach the devastated port city of Derna as questions are raised over how up to 20,000 people may have died after Storm Daniel hit the northern coast of Libya on Saturday.

- Patrick Wintour, Luke Harding

A total of 10,000 people were declared missing by official aid agencies such as the Libyan Red Crescent, but the ominous higher estimate of 20,000 deaths came from the director of al-Bayda medical centre, Abdul Rahim Maziq.

Corpses still litter the street and drinkable water is in short supply. The storm has killed whole families and, given the remoteness of some villages and the rudimentary nature of municipal government, it will take time for the death toll to be confirmed.

But the scale of devastation appeared even worse than officials had initially predicted. The "sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies", said Hichem Abu Chkiouat, the minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, adding that reconstruction would cost billions of dollars.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Libya said yesterday that at least 30,000 people had been displaced in Derna, the town most affected by Storm Daniel. IOM added that 6,085 were known to have been displaced in other stormhit areas including Benghazi, with the number of deaths still unverified.

Such was the need to bury the bodies to avoid the spread of disease that hundreds were being buried in one grave. Derna residents have been pleading for a new field hospital as the two existing hospitals in the town have become makeshift morgues.

Sea patrols were working along the coast trying to locate washed-up bodies, many of which were being taken to Tobruk for potential identification.

There was a shortage of food and drinking water, and authorities were struggling to fully reinstate the internet. A technical committee estimated that 20 miles (32km) of roads in Derna had collapsed. The area devastated by the floods covered 90 hectares (220 acres) and five bridges had been wiped out.