Before and after: Satellite photos show how floods changed Libya within hours

As many as 10,000 people are estimated to be missing so far in a city that previously housed around 1,00,000 people. Eyewitness accounts described bodies laid out in a row on the ground in hospital corridors as families sought to identify their kin from amongst them.

According to Derna Mayor Abdulmenam al-Ghaithi, the death toll could rise to 18,000 to 20,000, depending on the number of districts destroyed by the flood.

Mustafa Salem, a resident of Derna city which is at the centre of the devastation, told the news agency Reuters he had so far lost 30 members of his family.

As per initial reports, the cause of the floods has been attributed to the strong winds from storm Daniel. Derna deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud told Al Jazeera that weak infrastructure and the building of structures close to the river too resulted in a higher toll.

“At least 20% of the city has been destroyed,” Madroud told Al Jazeera. “When the river overflowed its banks, it just took all the buildings with it, and the families that were in it.”

The tragedy comes days after a devastating earthquake razed homes and killed at least 2,1000 people in Morocco.