International desk – A catastrophic cyclone that accompanied water surge killed more than 5,000 people in the African nation of Libya, international media outlets reported on Wednesday.

Authorities presume 10,000 people have gone missing after the cyclone Daniel triggered heavy rains in northeastern Libya that caused two dams to collapse, surging more water into already inundated areas, according to CNN report.

The broadcaster referred to a news briefing by Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya, in Geneva and said he gave the numbers of missing people.

“The death toll is huge,” she was quoted to have said.

Libyan interior ministry of eastern government on Tuesday reported that at least 5,300 people are thought dead.

Of those who were killed, at least 145 were Egyptian, officials in the northeastern city of Tobruk, in Libya, said on Tuesday.

The report says in the eastern city of Derna, which has seen the worst of the devastation, as many as 6,000 people remain missing, Othman Abduljalil, health minister in Libya’s eastern administration, told Libya’s Almasar TV.

He called the situation “catastrophic,” when he visited the city on Monday. The entire neighbourhood are believed to have been washed away.

Dead bodies have been left outside of the morgue and sidewalks as hospitals are not operable with morgues full, according to Osama Aly, an Emergency and Ambulance service spokesperson.

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