"The estimated the number of deaths in the city could reach between 18,000 to 20,000, based on the number of buildings in the districts destroyed by the flood," Mr Ghaithi told the Saudi-owned television station Al Arabiya.
At least 10,000 people are missing and tens of thousands more have been displaced.
Hichem Abu Chkiouat, minister of civil aviation in the administration that runs eastern Libya, told Reuters that the number of casualties could increase significantly as the "sea is constantly dumping dozens of bodies".
Officials have asked for more international help.
A UN official said that both the eastern and western governments had requested international aid and were talking to each other.
"Both governments have reached out to the international community requesting services and help," Tauhid Pasha, of the International Organisation for Migration, told BBC Radio 4's the World Tonight programme.
"The Government of National Unity [western government] has extended its support to us and its request on behalf of the entire country and they are also co-ordinating with the government in the east," he said.
"The challenge now is the international community responding accordingly to the needs and the requests of the governments," he added.
Mr Pasha said support needed to be scaled up "very, very quickly and to do so we need money".
It split between the two rival administrations based in the capital Tripoli in the west and Tobruk in the east.
The country remains mired in conflict between numerous militias.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah leads the UN-backed Government of National Unity in Tripoli.
Osama Hamad, the prime minister in the east, leads the rival House of Representatives.
However, many feel power there is really held by Gen Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army,
Gen Haftar received an Egyptian military delegation which came to offer aid and support after the disaster.
UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Volker Turk stressed that all political groups had to work together in the aftermath of the floods.
"This is a time for unity of purpose," he said.
"All those affected must receive support without regard for any affiliations. It is important that particular care is taken to ensure protection of groups in vulnerable situations who are rendered even more at risk in the aftermath of such a disaster."
Abdulkader Assad, political editor of the Libya Observer, said having an internationally recognised government in the west rivalled by another government in the east had hindered rescue efforts.
"We all know that Libya has been split between two governments for the last decade at least and we haven't actually felt the impact of this division because the presence of two governments was all about vying for power and taking control of the country and parts of the country," he said.
"But now that some of the cities are experiencing this natural disaster, this calamity, we could see that the lack of a unified centralised government is actually affecting the lives of people."
Libyan rescue teams searching for survivors in Derna are being supported on the ground by:
Search and rescue teams from Egypt and Tunisia
More than 160 personnel from Turkey
Firefighters from Italy and Spain
Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said time to find survivors was running out.
"We know that unfortunately this window will close in the next hours but hope is still there," he said.
Libyan Red Crescent teams in the field, he said, described the disaster as like "a bombardment and earthquake... happening at the same time".
"What they are telling us are really stories of entire areas of the city are not any more there, villages that are completely destroyed and thousands of families that at the moment really need everything," Mr Della Longa added.
Usama Al Husadi, 52, has been searching for his wife and five children since the catastrophic flood hit.
"I went by foot searching for them... I went to all hospitals and schools but no luck," he told Reuters news agency as he wept with his head in his hands.
"We lost at least 50 members from my father's family, between missing and dead," he said.
The bodies of more than 80 Egyptian migrants killed in the flood were returned to Egypt, the country's emigration ministry said, and were buried in their respective towns.
Kim Jong-un has pledged to support all of Russia’s decisions as he met Vladimir Putin during a rare trip outside North Korea.
Speaking at Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome, Kim said “Russia has risen to a sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security. We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership … and we will be together in the fight against imperialism.”
Putin welcomed Kim, saying: “We, of course, need to talk about questions of economic cooperation and questions of a humanitarian nature. We have a lot of questions.” The US has suggested that Russia is seeking North Korean military hardware to aid in the invasion of Ukraine. North Korea has previously denied supplying weapons to Moscow.
A Kremlin spokesperson said the relationship between Russia and North Korea is not aimed at other countries, and should not be a worry for third countries. North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea this morning as a demonstration of strength while Kim was out of the country. Japan has protested.
Putin and Kim have now begun face-to-face talks, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said would involve dialogue and cooperation in sensitive spheres, including the military.
Reuters is carrying that Kim Jong-un quote in full now, which was given in translation. He told his host Vladimir Putin:
I am deeply convinced that the heroic Russian army and people will brilliantly inherit the tradition of victory, confidently demonstrate invaluable dignity and honour on the fronts of the special military operation.
The Russian army and people will certainly win a great victory in the sacred struggle for the punishment of a great evil that claims hegemony and feeds an expansionist illusion.
Special military operation is the preferred term by Russian authorities for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Reuters reports that a Kremlin spokseperson has confirmed that the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un will conclude today. The location of the event, and even whether it would be happening at all, have been shrouded in mystery for much of the week.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told Russian president Vladimir Putin via a translator on Wednesday that he was sure that the Russian army and people would triumph against “evil”.
As well as offering a toast to Putin’s health, Kim also said the pair had agreed on a further deepening of strategic cooperation.
According to Reuters, Putin in turn proposed a toast for strengthening friendship and the wellbeing between the people of the two nations.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that an 81-year-old woman has been taken to hospital with injuries after a Russian attack on Odradokamyanka in the Kherson region.
Ukraine has made “great strides” to join the EU since being granted candidate status in 2022, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said, offering the bloc’s enduring support.
She was addressing the European parliament as the bloc considers whether to grant a formal start of membership negotiations.
“We know this is not an easy road,” Reuters reports Von der Leyen said. “Accession is merit-based. It takes hard work and leadership. But there is already a lot of progress. We have seen the great strides Ukraine has already made since.”
“Our support to Ukraine will endure,” she said in her annual policy speech.
Von der Leyen promised the bloc would extend special protections granted to Ukrainian citizens who fled Russia’s war, and lawmakers gave a standing ovation as she recounted the fate of Victoria Amelina, the Ukrainian writer and activist killed after having sent her son to safety in Prague.
Here are some more of the images being released from the summit in Russia between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.
Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military spy agency official, said on Wednesday that an overnight attack on the port of Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet in occupied Crimea, had struck a large Russian landing ship and a submarine.
Reuters reports Yusov told it “We confirm a large landing vessel and submarine were hit. We do not comment on the means (used) for the strike.”
On its Telegram channel, Tass has reported that the face-to-face meeting between Putin and Kim has now ended.
The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Papal envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will visit China for talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Reuters reports a spokesperson at the foreign ministry confirmed that China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui will meet with Zuppi.
The Vatican had said on Tuesday that Zuppi will be in China from Wednesday to Friday as part of a diplomatic push to facilitate peace in Ukraine.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has also been giving a press conference this morning, and in it she lambasted Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Reuters reports she accused Armenia of making “unacceptable and harmful” statements that were damaging to the prospects for a peace settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
She said the Russian foreign ministry has also protested to Azerbaijan over comments it made about the weekend regional elections held in areas of Ukraine which are claimed to be annexed by Moscow. Kyiv has declared the elections a sham.
Here is the video clip of Kim Jong-un telling Russia’s president Vladimir Putin that North Korea supports Russia’s “sacred battle with the west”.
It is worth noting that we may not actually get any kind of formal joint declaration or read out after the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un today. RIA’s unofficial Telegram channel for its Kremlin pool journalists points out that “The DPRK, Russia, and China do not have such a procedure as the mandatory release of a joint document after a summit.”
Hungary has agreed with Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria that the four countries would impose national bans on Ukrainian grains imports if the EU does not extend an existing ban that expires on 15 September, Hungary’s farm minister said on Wednesday.
Reuters reports the minister of agriculture, István Nagy, saying in a Facebook post that the ban would apply to a wider range of Ukrainian products than the current measures.
Some eastern European countries have complained that Ukraine’s inability to export goods through its Black Sea ports has led to a flooding of local markets with cheap Ukrainian produce, which is affecting their own agricultural sectors.
Kim Jong-un has pledged to support all of Russia’s decisions as he met Vladimir Putin during a rare trip outside North Korea.
Speaking at Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome, Kim said “Russia has risen to a sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security. We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership … and we will be together in the fight against imperialism.”
Putin welcomed Kim, saying: “We, of course, need to talk about questions of economic cooperation and questions of a humanitarian nature. We have a lot of questions.” The US has suggested that Russia is seeking North Korean military hardware to aid in the invasion of Ukraine. North Korea has previously denied supplying weapons to Moscow.
A Kremlin spokesperson said the relationship between Russia and North Korea is not aimed at other countries, and should not be a worry for third countries. North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea this morning as a demonstration of strength while Kim was out of the country. Japan has protested.
Putin and Kim have now begun face-to-face talks, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said would involve dialogue and cooperation in sensitive spheres, including the military.
Reuters has just published a full transcript of the remarks made by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in front of the media at the Vostochny cosmodrome. The Russian president welcomed North Korea’s leader saying:
Dear Mr Chairman, I am very glad to see and welcome you again in Russia – this time, as we agreed, at our Vostochny cosmodrome.
We are proud of how this sector is developing here, and this is our new facility. I hope both you and your colleagues find this interesting.
Our meeting is taking place at a very special time, after all. Most recently, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea celebrated 75 years of its creation and foundation. Seventy-five years of establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. Let me remind you that it was our country that was the first to recognise the sovereign independent state – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Then very soon we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the War of independence and the victory of the Korean people in this war. This is a landmark date, because our country also helped our friends in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to fight for this independence.
We, of course, need to talk about questions of economic cooperation and questions of a humanitarian nature. We have a lot of questions. I want to say that I am very glad to see you. Thank you for accepting the invitation and coming to Russia.
Kim’s response was as follows:
I express my gratitude to you for paying such attention to our visit to Russia.
The Soviet Union played a very big role in the liberation of our country. Our friendship has deep roots, and now relations with the Russian Federation are the first priority for our country I am sure that our meeting will be the next step to take relations to a new level.
Russia has risen to a sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security … against the hegemonic forces. We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership … and we will be together in the fight against imperialism.
Reuters also notes that Kim wrote in a visitor book at the centre: “The glory to Russia, which gave birth to the first space conquerors, will be immortal.”
On the ground in Ukraine, Suspilne has this round-up of overnight news, posting to Telegram to report:
At night, the Russian army attacked Odeshchyna with drones: there is damage to the port and civil infrastructure. Seven people were injured.
Air defence forces destroyed 32 Shahed drones out of 44 launched. Russian troops attacked Odeshchyna and Sumy region with them at night.
Defence forces have partial success near Klishchiivka in the Bakhmut direction, said the spokesperson of the general staff.
In the last 24 hours three people were killed and three others were injured as a result of shelling by the Russian Federation in Donetsk region. Four people were injured in Kherson region. One person was injured in Zaporizhzhia.
Here are a couple more of the official images being released to the press of Kim Jong-un’s visit to meet Vladimir Putin today.
Bodies recovered from a devastating flood which wiped out parts of the port city of Derna in eastern Libya have been buried in mass graves.
At least 2,300 people died when a tsunami-like river of floodwater swept through Derna on Sunday after a dam burst during Storm Daniel.
A mechanical digger worked in a cemetery where victims wrapped in body bags and blankets were buried together.
With 10,000 people reported missing, the death toll is expected to rise.
Mohammed Qamaty, a volunteer in Derna, said rescue workers were still searching for victims.
"We call on all the young Libyans, anyone who has a degree or any medical affiliation to please come and help us," he told Reuters news agency. "We have a shortage in nurses, we need help."
Some aid has started to arrive, including from Egypt, but rescue efforts have been hampered by the political situation in Libya, with the country split between two rival governments.
The US, Germany, Iran, Italy, Qatar and Turkey are among the countries that have said they have sent, or are ready to send, aid.
Water engineering experts have told the BBC it is likely a dam around 12km (eight miles) from Derna failed first, sending its water sweeping down a valley and overcoming a second dam which lay closer to the city.
Your device may not support this visualisation
Video footage recorded after dark on Sunday shows a river of floodwater churning through Derna, a city of about 100,000 people, with cars bobbing helplessly in the current.
Daylight revealed ruined neighbourhoods with streets covered in mud and rubble, littered with upturned vehicles.
There are harrowing stories of people being swept out to sea, while others clung onto rooftops to survive.
"I was shocked by what I saw, it's like a tsunami," Hisham Chkiouat, from Libya's eastern-based government, told BBC Newshour.
Eastern Libya's health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, told the Associated Press by phone from Derna: "We were stunned by the amount of destruction... The tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government."
The cities of Soussa, Al-Marj and Misrata were also affected by Sunday's storm.
Libya has been in political chaos since long-serving ruler Col Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011 - leaving the oil-rich nation effectively split with an interim, internationally recognised government operating from the capital, Tripoli, and another one in the east.
But despite the split, the government in Tripoli has sent a plane with 14 tonnes of medical supplies, body bags and more than 80 doctors and paramedics.
Derna, about 250km east of Benghazi along the coast, is surrounded by the nearby hills of the fertile Jabal Akhdar region.
The city was once where militants from the Islamic State group built a presence in Libya, after Gaddafi's fall. They were driven out some years later by the Libyan National Army, forces loyal to Gen Khalifa Haftar who is allied to the eastern administration.
The powerful general said eastern officials were currently assessing damage caused by the floods so roads could be reconstructed and electricity restored to help rescue efforts.
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The scale of the disaster in Libya is still unclear, days after two catastrophic dam collapses on Sunday, with a local official confirming on Tuesday evening that the death toll has now exceeded 5,300.
The Red Cross has said at least 10,000 people are missing after catastrophic flooding in the port city of Derna over the weekend. Local officials have warned that many of those yet to be found are likely to have died.
The raging torrent of mud-brown water swept away several major bridges, while many of the city’s multi-storey buildings on the banks of the riverbed collapsed.
Tariq al-Kharraz, a representative of Libya’s eastern government, said entire neighbourhoods had been washed away, with many bodies swept out to sea.
The city, with a population of 90,000, is bisected by the Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that flows from highlands further south, and is normally protected from flooding by dams. Satellite images like the one below show the scale of the destruction after one of the dams, visible in the bottom left corner, collapsed on Sunday.
Libya has seen years of war and chaos after a popular uprising in 2011 which toppled and killed the country’s longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The country is divided between two rival governments – the UN-brokered, internationally recognised administration based in Tripoli, and a separate administration in the disaster-hit east.
Investment in roads and public services has dwindled and there has been minimal regulation of private building. Derna was for several years controlled by Islamist militant groups until it was captured in 2019 by Gen Khalifa Haftar, the warlord in charge of an army in the east.
Other areas close to Derna were also badly affected, including the town of Bayda, where about 50 people were reported dead, as well as the town Marj, where images from before and after the floods laid bear the extent of damage to fields and farmland.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has crossed the border into Russia where he is set to meet with Vladimir Putin and discuss a potential arms deal.
Russian state news agency Ria Novosti confirmed Kim’s train had entered the Primorsky region early on Tuesday, with images showing an armoured train with dark green carriages being pulled along a track by a Russian Railways locomotive.
Kim will meet Putin in the Far East later this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Mr Peskov said the meeting would include a lunch in Kim’s honour.
“It will be a full-fledged visit,” Mr Peskov said. “There will be negotiations between two delegations, and after that, if necessary, the leaders will continue their communication in a one-on-one format.”
Experts say Moscow would likely seek artillery shells and antitank missiles from North Korea, which wants advanced satellite and nuclear-powered submarine technology in return. The visit is the North Korean leader’s first trip abroad in four years.
CCTV captures moment earthquake strikes busy Marrakech street
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Rescuers are racing the clock to find survivors in the rubble more than 48 hours after Morocco's deadliest earthquake in more than six decades.
More than 2,800 people were killed in a disaster that devastated villages in the High Atlas Mountains.
Aftershocks will continue to rock Morocco weeks or months, a seismological expert has warned. Remy Mossu, the director of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, told Sky News that more than 25 aftershocks have already hit the country since the 6.8 magnitude earthquake.
“There will be aftershocks. It is not probably, it is a certainty,” he said.
Some villagers say they are struggling to find enough space to bury their dead as funerals can take place beside rescue work. Others are preparing extra graves ready for more bodies, even as rescue operations continue.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has thanked Spain, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates for sending aid, with the UK government set to send 60 search and rescue specialists and four search dogs to Morocco.
The damage from the quake could take several years to repair, according to the Red Cross.
ICYMI - Mapped: Morocco earthquake that killed over 2,000 and levelled buildings in Marrakech
The Morocco earthquake that has killed more than 2,000 people was the strongest to hit the north African nation in several decades.
The earthquake struck just after 11pm on Friday and has impacted the entire region, with tremors being felt thousands of miles away in Portugal and Algeria.
The quake’s epicentre is in the middle of the country and located at the High Atlas Mountains in the Ighil area, about 40 miles (70km) south of Marrakech.
How can I support victims of the Morocco earthquake?
Thousands have been affected following an earthquake in Morocco on Friday 8 September that has devastated rural communities in the Atlas Mountains.
Mountainside villages in the epicentre, Al Haouz province (44 miles south of Marrakech), were destroyed and many have lost their lives. Some 2,476 people have been injured and the death toll has risen to 2,500 as a result of the 6.8 magnitude earthquake.
In Tikekhte, where few buildings have been left standing, 66-year-old Mohamed Ouchen described how residents rescued 25 people - one of whom was his sister.
"We were busy rescuing. Because we didn’t have tools, we used our hands," he said. "Her head was visible and we kept digging by hand."
Footage from the remote village of Imi N’Tala, filmed by Spanish rescuer Antonio Nogales of the aid group Bomberos Unidos Sin Fronteras (United Firefighters Without Borders), showed men and dogs clambering over steep slopes covered in rubble.
"The level of destruction is ... absolute," said Nogales on Monday, struggling to find the right word to describe what he was seeing. "Not a single house has stayed upright."
Despite the scale of the damage, he said rescuers searching with dogs still hoped to find survivors.
The epicentre of the quake was about 72 km (45 miles) southwest of Marrakech, where some historical buildings in the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were damaged. The quake also did major damage to the historically significant 12th-century Tinmel Mosque.
In the village of Tinmel, almost every house was pulverised and the entire community has been left homeless. The stench of death from dozens of animals buried under the rubble wafts through parts of the village.
Mouhamad Elhasan, 59, said he had been eating dinner with his family when the earthquake struck. His 31-year-old son fled outside and was hit as their neighbour’s roof collapsed, trapping him under the rubble.
Elhasan said he searched for his son as he cried for help. But eventually the cries stopped, and by the time he reached his son he was dead. Elhasan and his wife and daughter remained inside their home and survived.
"If he had stayed inside the house he would have been ok," Elhasan said.
In Tinmel and in other villages residents said they had pulled people out of the rubble with their bare hands.
ICYMI - ‘I know I’m lucky to be alive’: Morocco travel insider says country will rebuild tourism in wake of earthquake
The British man who has done more than anyone else to build tourism in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains says he is “lucky to be alive” after he was caught up in Friday’s catastrophic earthquake.
But some students attending the schools in the area he helped to establish have died.
With much of the quake zone in hard-to-reach areas, authorities have not issued any estimates for the number of missing.
The earthquake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, has claimed the lives of nearly 2,800 people and a similar number of wounded, many of them seriously. However, authorities have not yet revealed the number of missing.
Search teams from Britain, Spain and Qatar have joined efforts to find people buried under the rubble, including in some of the remote villages in the High Atlas mountains close to the epicentre of the quake.
British tourists had to sleep on streets after Morocco earthquake, husband says
Two British tourists slept on the streets of a village in the Atlas mountains – unable to contact their families following a devastating earthquake in Morocco, one of their husbands has said.
Rebecca Calvert, 63, and friend Hilary Mckegney, 64, had just arrived in the remote village of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains to go on a hiking trip when the earthquake struck.
The magnitude 6.8 tremor late on Friday damaged buildings from villages in the Atlas Mountains to the historic city of Marrakesh.
The official death toll from the earthquake was more than 2,800 people by Sunday evening.
Morocco wedding interrupted by 6.8-magnitude earthquake
A powerful earthquake interrupted a wedding in Morocco on Friday, 8 September.
Footage from Marrakech shows musicians abandoning the stage and fleeing through a doorway as people scream.
More than 2,000 people have died after the earthquake struck late on Friday and thousands have spent three nights sleeping in the streets following the disaster.
The UK is set to send 60 search and rescue specialists and four search dogs to Morocco.
Damage could take several years to repair, according to the Red Cross.
A powerful earthquake interrupted a wedding in Morocco on Friday, 8 September. Footage from Marrakech shows musicians abandoning the stage and fleeing through a doorway as people scream. More than 2,000 people have died after the earthquake struck late on Friday and thousands have spent three nights sleeping in the streets following the disaster. The UK is set to send 60 search and rescue specialists and four search dogs to Morocco. Damage could take several years to repair, according to the Red Cross.
Race against time to find survivors of Morocco earthquake as death toll nears 2,800
Rescuers face a race against time to find survivors of the deadly earthquake in Morocco, with international search and rescue personnel arriving to help the search almost 72 hours after the disaster.
The earthquake, Morocco’s deadliest in more than six decades, has claimed the lives of nearly 2,700 people and a similar number of wounded, many of them seriously.
Search teams from Britain, Spain and Qatar have joined efforts to find people buried under the rubble, including in some of the remote villages in the High Atlas mountains close to the epicentre of the quake.
“The level of destruction is... absolute,” said Spanish rescuer Antonio Nogales. “Not a single house has stayed upright.”
“We’re going to start our search with dogs and see whether we can find anyone alive,” he said in video footage he filmed in the village of Imi N’Tala, about 45 miles (72km) from Marrakech.
‘I know I’m lucky to be alive’: Morocco travel insider says country will rebuild tourism in wake of earthquake
The British man who has done more than anyone else to build tourism in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains says he is “lucky to be alive” after he was caught up in Friday’s catastrophic earthquake.
But some students attending the schools in the area he helped to establish have died.
Mike McHugo is a visionary entrepreneur who transformed an ancient fort 60km south of Marrakech into a sought-after eco-lodge known as the Kasbah du Toubkal. It is located in the foothills of North Africa’s highest mountain, Toubkal, above the village of Imlil.
He was in bed in the property at 11.11pm on Friday when the earthquake struck.
“I was woken up and I knew instantly it was an earthquake. I was in a room with my brother and I knew we couldn’t get out because we’re in a downstairs bedroom and stuff was falling around. I just told him to get under the bed or close to the bed.