DERNA, Libya (NEWSnet/AP) — A health official in eastern Libya says the death toll in Derna, where Mediterranean storm Daniel flooding was fed by broken dams, has reached 5,100 and could continue to increase.

Ossama Ali, a spokesman for the Ambulance and Emergency Center in eastern Libya, said at least 100 others died in other towns within the region during the flooding.

Ali says the number of fatalities is likely to increase in the coastal city since search and rescue teams are still collecting bodies from the streets, buildings and the sea.

Just on Wednesday, more than 2,000 bodies were found in Derna, about half of were buried in mass graves in Derna, according to eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel.

In addition, more than 7,000 people were injured in Derna, Ali said. Many of them received treatment at field hospitals that authorities and aid agencies set up there.

While Daniel caused flooding in several eastern Libya towns, Derna was particularly hard hit because two dams outside the city collapsed Sunday night. The floodwaters surged down the Wadi Derna, a river passing from the mountains to the sea through the city.

“The city of Derna was submerged by waves 7 meters (23 feet) high that destroyed everything in their path,” Yann Fridez, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya, told broadcaster France24. “The human toll is enormous.”

Local emergency responders, including troops, government workers, volunteers and residents, continued digging through rubble looking for the dead. They also used inflatable boats and helicopters to retrieve bodies from the water and inaccessible areas.

“This is a disaster of every sense of the word,” a wailing survivor who lost 11 members of his family told a local television station as a group of rescuers tried to calm him. 

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