KUWAIT: Chairperson of Kuwait Red Crescent Society Dr Hilal Al-Sayer declared on Tuesday the society readiness to send urgent aid to Libya to relieve victims of the floods caused by the hurricane "daniel." Dr Al-Sayer said in a statement to KUNA that the society is coordinating with the Libyan Red Crescent to determine pending needs in the regions ravaged by the hurricane He affirmed readiness to dispatch assistance to the victims in line with the State of Kuwait's policy to relieve the afflicted worldwide.

Dr Hilal Al-Sayer

The flash floods in eastern Libya have killed more than 2,300 people in the Mediterranean coastal city of Derna alone, the emergency services of the Tripoli-based government said on Tuesday. Thousands of 5,000 people remained missing while about 7,000 people were injured by the force of floodwaters that rushed down a normally dry river valley, said Osama Ali, spokesman for the Tripoli-based emergency services, which has had a team in Derna since Monday.

The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday. Officials in Libya have said at least 150 people were killed in the sudden flooding on Sunday afternoon after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.

But Tamer Ramadan of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said the actual toll was likely to be many times higher. "Our teams on the ground are still doing their assessment (but) from what we see and from the news coming to us, the death toll is huge," he told reporters in Geneva via video link from Tunis. "It might reach to the thousands," he said in English. "We don't have a definite number right now."

Independent sources had told the IFRC the number reported missing was "hitting 10,000 persons so far". "The humanitarian needs are much more beyond the abilities of the Libyan Red Crescent and even the abilities of the government," Ramadan said. "That's why the government in the east has issued an international appeal for support," he said, adding that IFRC was also preparing to launch an emergency appeal for funds towards the response.- Agencies