蜜芽传媒

More than 11,000 people are now known to have died in the devastating floods in the eastern port city of Derna, after Storm Daniel hit last Sunday. The mayor of Derna warns that 20,000 people may have lost their lives after two aging dams collapsed, sending a huge torrent of water through the centre of the city of some 100,000 people. Workers are still pulling bodies from the water, mud and rubble.

Mariam Algwithi is from Derna and told 蜜芽传媒 Newsday how she and her brother and sisters managed to survive the disaster.

"The men of our building, our neighbours, they were screaming and yelling, 'You should all hurry up to the seventh floor'...so we all hurried up," says Mariam, adding, "Everyone was screaming, everyone was praying, everyone was scared."

"And then we had to go onto the roof because the water had exceeded the fifth floor...our building is two buildings merged together and we had to jump to the other building" says Mariam.

(Photo: A man stands near collapsed buildings at the port city of Derna, eastern Libya, 14 September 2023, in the wake of Storm Daniel. Credit: EPA)

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