Residents and rescue workers in the devastated Libyan city of Derna are struggling to cope with the thousands of corpses washing up or decaying under rubble, after a flood that smashed down buildings and swept people to sea.
DERNA, Libya — Residents and rescue workers in the devastated Libyan city of Derna are struggling to cope with thewashing up or decaying under rubble, after a flood that smashed down buildings and swept people to sea.
Ibrahim al-Arabi, health minister in Libya's Tripoli-based western government, told Reuters he was certain groundwater was polluted with water mixed up with corpses, dead animals, refuse and chemical substances. "We urge people not to approach the wells in Derna," he said. The Libyan Red Crescent says that the death toll from floods in the eastern Libyan city of Derna has soared to 11,300. The Secretary General of the aid group says a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the coastal city.
"We urge authorities in communities touched by tragedy to not rush forward with mass burials or mass cremations," Kazunobu Kojima, medical officer for biosafety and biosecurity in the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said in the statement. Thursday's U.N. report said more than 1,000 bodies in Derna and over 100 in Al Bayda, another coastal city hit by flooding, had been buried in mass graves.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Derna survivors search for loved ones after Libyan flooding'When I came, I found everything — my building, my family, the whole neighborhood — under the sea. Everything disappeared,' one man told NBC News.
Read more »
Death toll soars to 11,300 from flooding in Libyan coastal city of DernaAnother 10,100 are reported missing from flooding caused by Mediterranean storm Daniel, the Libyan Red Crescent says.
Read more »
Flood death toll in Libya's Derna city could reach 20,000Toll could reach 18,000 to 20,000, based on number of wiped-out districts, says Abdulmenam al Ghaithi, mayor of eastern city.
Read more »
Flood death toll in Libya's Derna soars to 11,300 — aid groupLibyan Red Crescent says a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city following devastating flood in the conflict-torn North African country.
Read more »
Libya's flood-hit Derna struggles to deal with corpses after huge death tollResidents and rescue workers in the devastated Libyan city of Derna were struggling to cope with the thousands of corpses washing up or decaying under rubble, after a flood that smashed down buildings and swept people out to sea.
Read more »