'We heard huge explosion': Libya flood survivors tell of miraculous escape

Survivors of Libya's deadly flood have described a sound like an explosion when a dam burst, a torrent rapidly rising to upper storeys of buildings and escaping across rooftops or treading water for hours in rooms flooded almost to the ceiling.

At the entrance to Derna, in eastern Libya, where a storm swelled a river and burst two dams, sending floodwaters crashing through the city early on Monday, a group of survivors stood looking for shelter with their homes destroyed.

Raja Sassi, 39, survived the flood with his wife and small daughter after the water had reached an upper floor, but the rest of his family had died, he said.

"At first, we just thought it was heavy rain, but at midnight we heard a huge explosion, and it was the dam bursting," he said.

The city centre was littered with corpses, he said.

His wife Nouriya al Hasadi, 31, who had clung to her small daughter through their escape, said it was "miraculous" that they had survived.

Safia Mustafa, 41, a mother of two sons, said they managed to flee their home before the building collapsed.

They climbed to the roof and escaped across the roofs of neighbouring blocks.

Her son, Obai, 10, said he was praying to God for their survival.

Saliha Abu Bakr, a 46-year-old lawyer, said she and her two sisters had survived the disaster, but her mother had died.

Water quickly engulfed their building, reaching to the third floor.

The floodwaters rushed into their apartment almost up to the ceiling, and for what she said felt like three hours, she held a piece of furniture, trying to stay afloat.

"I can swim, but when I tried to rescue my family, I couldn't do anything," she said.

The floodwaters eventually receded, and they left the building shortly before it collapsed with her mother inside.

Thousands feared dead

The death toll in Derna alone has exceeded 5,300, the state-run news agency quoted Mohammed Abu Lamousha, a spokesperson for the East Libya Interior Ministry, as saying on Tuesday.

Derna's ambulance authority earlier put the toll at 2,300.

But the toll is likely to be higher, in the thousands, said Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

He told a UN briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing.

He said later on Tuesday that more than 40,000 people have been displaced.