Several thousand of people are presumed dead after Libya was hit by catastrophic flooding brought on by a strong storm.

The head of the internationally unrecognized east Libyan government said that thousands of people were still missing and that the death toll had surpassed 2,000.

A Libya expert named Jalel Harchaoui told the BBC that the death toll might be as high as “several thousand.”

When Storm Daniel made landfall on Sunday, the government proclaimed an extraordinary emergency.

Seven Libyan army members are still missing as rescue operations continue.

Authorities in the east imposed a curfew and ordered businesses like schools to close.

Benghazi, Sousse, Derna, and Al-Marj were among the impacted cities in the east.

The Libyan Red Cross reported that in addition to the growing death toll, at least 150 dwellings had been destroyed.

According to news agency Reuters, the head of the Red Crescent humanitarian network claimed that Derna alone has seen at least 150 fatalities.

According to reports, two dams in Derna, which is home to about 100,000 people, fell, flooding parts of the neighborhood and killing some locals.

As a result, the port was designated a “disaster city” by the authorities.

Osama Hamad, the prime minister of Eastern Libya, said on a Libyan television station that “entire neighborhoods in Derna have disappeared, along with their residents…swept away by water.”