More than 5,300 people are feared dead after devastating flooding struck Libya.
A quarter of the eastern city of Derna was wiped out by floodwaters after dams burst as Storm Daniel hit the country, the local administration said, with more than 1,500 bodies recovered so far.
There are fears the number of those killed will rise further, with 10,000 people reported missing after entire neighbourhoods were washed away.
More than 5,300 people in Derna alone have been killed, according to Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry.
Image: Cars stacked on top of each other. Pic: Libyan government via AP
Derna’s ambulance authority earlier put the number at 2,300.
Images showed a mass grave piled with bodies.
Image: Pic: AP
Disaster zone
Derna has been declared a disaster zone.
Tamer Ramadan, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in Libya, said: “We can confirm from our independent sources of information that the number of missing people is hitting 10,000 so far.
“The death toll is huge and might reach thousands.”
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0:40
Thousands feared dead in Libya floods
He added that conditions in Libya were “as devastating as the situation in Morocco“, which has been recently hit by a powerful earthquake.
He later said that more than 40,000 people have been displaced.
The Red Cross secretary general and chief executive, Jagan Chapagain, said on Tuesday three volunteers from its Libya chapter had died while trying to help families impacted by flooding.
Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck.
‘Bodies lying everywhere’
Image: Streets are flooded after being hit by Storm Daniel in Marj, in northeastern Libya
Hichem Abu Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation in the eastern administration, said: “I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous.
“Bodies are lying everywhere – in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings.”
Entire residential blocks were erased along Wadi Derna, a river that runs down from the mountains through the city centre.
Even multi-storey apartment buildings that stood well back from the river partially collapsed into the mud.
Cars lifted by the flood were left dumped on top of each other.
Othman Abduljaleel, eastern Libya’s health minister, said Derna was inaccessible and bodies were scattered across it, Libya’s state-run news agency reported.
“The situation was more significant and worse than we expected… An international intervention is needed,” he was quoted as saying.
It has taken time but it’s now quickly becoming clear to the outside world that Libya is facing a significant humanitarian catastrophe.
Storm Daniel has already caused chaos in southern Europe but the flooding in the east of the country may be even worse.
The disaster has been compounded by the problems Libya is already facing – years of war since Muammar Gaddafi was ousted have left the fractured nation in no place to deal with this terrible climatic event.
We don’t really know the numbers of dead – it’s definitely in the thousands but that tragic figure could rise much higher.
Aid agencies are pointing to the collapse of two dams in the coastal city of Derna as the reason for the worst of the devastation.
At least 10,000 people are missing according to the Red Crescent.
Reaching the areas worst affected is not easy – the swollen rivers and intense flash flooding have swept away roads and homes.
There are reports entire communities have been washed away into the sea.
Any relief effort will be also complicated by the political divisions that exist.
An internationally recognised government sits in the capital Tripoli but the east is administered – where Derna is located – by a different authority.
There are signs of aid moving from the capital eastwards, but for people in the flooded areas it cannot come quick enough.
It may be days before we know the true extent of this disaster and they get the help they need.
‘Never felt as frightened’
At Tripoli airport in northwest Libya, one woman broke down in tears as she found out most of her family were dead or missing.
Her brother-in-law, Walid Abdulati, said “we are not speaking about one or two people dead, but up to 10 members of each family dead”.
Karim al Obaidi, a passenger on a plane from Tripoli to the east, said he has “never felt as frightened” and that he has lost contact with family.
People were searching for bodies and men in a rubber boat retrieved one from the sea, footage broadcast by Libyan TV station al Masar showed.
Image: A collapsed seaside road after heavy flooding in Derna. Pic: Libyan government via AP
“We have nothing to save people… no machines… we are asking for urgent help,” said Khalifah Touil, an ambulance worker.
Derna, on Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast, is bisected by a seasonal river that flows from highlands to the south, and it is normally protected from flooding by dams.
Derna is about 560 miles east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and is controlled by the forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, who is allied with the east Libya government.
West Libya, including Tripoli, is controlled by armed groups connected to another administration.
Police in Tenerife have called for volunteers to take part in a large-scale search for missing British teenager Jay Slater.
Officials said it would take place on Saturday in the village of Masca on the Spanish island.
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0:49
Volunteers called for in Jay Slater search
In a statement, police said: “The Guardia Civil prepares and coordinates a large search to find the young British man missing in the village of Masca.
“The collaboration of all those volunteer associations is requested: Civil protection, firefighters, etc., and even private volunteers who are experts in the abrupt search terrain.
“The massive search will be carried out on Saturday, 29 June from 9am.
“Bearing in mind that this is an abrupt, rocky area, full of unevenness and with a multitude of ravines, paths and roads, the collaboration of all those associations of volunteers who can help in this raid that is intended to be carried out in a directed and coordinated manner is requested,” the statement said.
Image: The Los Carrizales ravine which was being searched by police. Pic: Reuters
Image: Canarian police officers carry out a drone search in the Los Carrizales ravine. Pic: Reuters
Police said volunteers should call the Guardia Civil before 8pm this evening if they want to join the search.
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The 19-year-old, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, disappeared following an attempt to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.
The apprentice bricklayer had attended the NRG music festival on the island with two friends before his disappearance and was last heard from on Monday last week.
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0:35
Police search mountains for Jay Slater
The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location, Rural de Teno Park in the north of the island, to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.
Image: Map showing Jay Slater’s last known location in Masca, Los Carrizales where police are searching and Los Cristianos, where Jay was staying
Meanwhile, one of Mr Slater’s friends told ITV’s This Morning about his last video call with the 19-year-old.
Brad, a close friend of Mr Slater, said yes to the reporter’s question as to whether he saw the missing teenager’s feet slide on rocks. He said that is how he knew Mr Slater was not on a road, and described the sound as when someone is walking on gravel or stones.
Brad added that Mr Slater went down a “little drop” in one of his last video calls.
He said the missing teenager was not concerned and that they were both “laughing” about the situation.
“He said, ‘look where I am’. He didn’t seem concerned on the phone until we knew how far away he were,” Brad said.
“I said, ‘put your location on’. He said: ’15-minute drive, 14-hour walk’. I don’t know if it’s accurate or not so I said to him: ‘It’s only a 15-minute drive, get a taxi’.”
New search could be the final push
Shingi Mararike, Sky News correspondent, in Tenerife
Almost as soon we arrived today to cover the search for Jay Slater in this sprawling national park on the outskirts of Tenerife, things felt different.
The police presence was smaller, with fewer vehicles and officers. They appeared to have stopped searching the caves and ravines they’d honed in on earlier this week.
Instead, the small team of officers drove towards some of nearby hamlets along the twisting, narrow road, before turning around and coming back to the observation point near where Jay’s phone is thought to have been last located.
There, they stopped for an animated discussion. As they gestured towards parts of the rural, arid landscape, it was clear they were coordinating and planning.
Then, within minutes, came an update from the Civil Guard. Tomorrow, at 9am they would be re-doubling their efforts to find Jay, working with other emergency services and even inviting the help of volunteers with experience in traversing difficult terrain.
That landscape presents a clear challenge, but another issue for those searching tomorrow will be just how busy the area of Masca is.
It’s a compact town full of hikers and tourists, a busy place from early in the morning.
The search party will have to navigate all of these obstacles as they attempt to retrace the teenager’s last-known steps and find clues for what may have happened to him.
Tomorrow marks the 13th day searching for Jay Slater and this is perhaps a final push from the Civil Guard to make some kind of headway.
Even with more resource and manpower, it will be a gruelling day for all those involved.
Today’s police statement comes as Mr Slater’s family welcomed the help of a TikTok creator among those leading an online search for the missing teenager.
Sky News spoke earlier this week to Paul Arnott, who has been sharing clips of his own search effort on TikTok and said he came to Tenerife when he heard the family “needed help”.
According to The Daily Telegraph, his efforts attracted the interest of Mr Slater’s family, who contacted him and arranged a meeting on Thursday.
Image: Jay Slater is an apprentice bricklayer. Pic: PH Build Group
“They said they’re really proud of what I’m doing,” Mr Arnott, 29, told the newspaper.
Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, told the paper she has “every faith” in the police and singled out Mr Arnott, who runs the TikTok account Down the Rapids and describes himself as an “explorer”, and another TikTok creator Callum Rahim for thanks.
Social media has also had a dark side for the family, with Ms Duncan and her son’s friends at the centre of conspiracy theories.
The construction company that employs Mr Slater shared a post on Facebook earlier on Thursday urging people to stop sending them “cruel” emails and to stop posting theories online.
Also on Thursday, Ms Duncan said £36,000 raised by more than 3,200 donations will help cover her accommodation and food costs during her extended stay on the island as well as support rescue teams.
A British man has died off the Greek island of Spetses.
He had been taking part in a yachting regatta and authorities said he was found dead on Friday.
The man, who was in his forties, was found in a bay area of the island with what appeared to be injuries on the left side of his head, according to the coastguard.
The Greek island, which is part of the Saronic Islands group, has an area of 27km² and is home to just over 3,700 people.
The coastguard added that he was taken to a local hospital where he was confirmed dead.
Local media reported the man was part of a team taking part in an annual classic yacht regatta running from 26 to 29 June.
Tourist deaths
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A postmortem will be carried out to determine the cause of death.
There have been several recent cases where tourists have gone missing or died on Greek islands.
One person has been killed and six more have been injured in India after part of the roof at an airport collapsed in heavy rain.
The incident at the domestic departure terminal of New Delhi‘s Indira Gandhi International Airport happened at around 5am local time on Friday as heavy pre-monsoon rains lashed the capital.
Image: A crew removes water outside the airport on Friday. Pic: AP
All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to save anyone trapped, the airport authority said.
Image: The collapsed roof at the domestic departure terminal. Pic: AP
Image: Pic: AP
Some support beams also collapsed, damaging cars in the pickup and drop-off area of the terminal, local media reported.
Of the six injured, one was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen.
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