More than 1,000 bodies have been recovered in the eastern Libyan city of Derna after it was hit by floods, a minister in the eastern administration said on Tuesday, adding that the final toll was expected to be high.

“I returned from Derna. It is very disastrous. Bodies are lying everywhere — in the sea, in the valleys, under the buildings,” Hichem Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation and member of the emergency committee, told Reuters by phone.

“The number of bodies recovered in Derna is more 1,000,” he said. He expected the final toll would be “really, really big”. “I am not exaggerating when I say that 25% of the city has disappeared. Many, many buildings have collapsed.”

Officials in the administration that runs the eastern part of the divided country said on Monday that at least 2,000 people had been killed by the floods, though it was not immediately clear what that estimate was based on.

Officials said thousands more were missing after the flood, which they said had swept away entire neighbourhoods after dams burst above the city.

A video shared on Facebook, which Reuters could not independently verify, appeared to show dozens of bodies covered in blankets on the pavements in Derna.

Libya is politically divided between east and west and public services have crumbled since a 2011 Nato-backed uprising that prompted years of conflict.

The internationally recognised government in Tripoli does not control eastern areas.

After pummelling Greece last week, Storm Daniel swept in over the Mediterranean on Sunday, swamping roads and destroying buildings in Derna, and hitting other settlements along the coast, including Libya's second biggest city of Benghazi.

Reuters