Bodies in the street and mass graves as Libya floods kill more than 5,000

A DESPERATE search for survivors of the deadly floods in Libya was under way today as officials said the death toll had risen to more than 5,000 and the United.

- Martin Bentham

Nations warned that a "calamity of epic proportions" had taken place.

Some bodies were reported to be lying in the streets as children screamed and other victims were buried in mass graves in the Mediterranean port city of Derna, where thousands of people are feared to have been swept into the sea by the wave of water caused by floods.

Photographs of the devastation showed wrecked buildings, crumpled cars and parts of the city submerged in water as efforts by rescuers to locate the many missing people continued. The disaster began on Sunday as Storm Daniel unleashed heavy rain on Libya but accelerated when dams upriver from Derna were overwhelmed, sending huge volumes of water sweeping into the city.