More than 2,300 dead, thousands missing as floods devastate eastern Libya

Flash floods in eastern Libya killed more than 2,300 people in the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna alone, the emergency services of the Tripoli-based government said on Tuesday. 

Thousands more are feared missing after huge flash floods devastated eastern regions, with a surge of muddy river water ripping away entire neighbourhoods. 

The disaster in the war-scarred country was caused by torrential rains from Storm Daniel, which made landfall in Libya on Sunday after earlier lashing other Mediterranean countries, especially Greece but also Bulgaria and Turkey.

The coastal city of Derna, 250 kilometres (150 miles) west of Benghazi, is ringed by hills and bisected by what is normally a dry riverbed in summer, but which has turned into a raging torrent that also swept away several major bridges.