Rescue workers are still continuing to recover bodies from people killed by the floods, said Tarek al-Kharraz, spokesman for the ministry in the eastern-based government.

Al-Kharraz also said that a quarter of the city has been destroyed or washed into the sea.

Derna has been the most severely affected city by the floods brought by powerful storm Daniel which had swept through eastern Libya.

Two dams collapsed in the city during the storm.

Two rival governments are vying for power in Libya, which has been plagued by unrest in recent years.

One is based in the east and the other in based in the capital Tripoli, in the west.

So far the exact death toll from the floods cannot be determined, Health Minister Othman Abdel Jalil was quoted as saying by Libya’s Al Massar television channel.

“Many victims were stranded, and bodies were scattered in many areas of the city of Derna, which was isolated from its surroundings… making it difficult to accurately determine the large numbers of deaths and missing people,” he said.

Tamer Ramadan, head of the Libya office of the Tunis-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said about 10,000 people are missing.

The storm system known as Daniel began bringing heavy rains to Libya on Sunday, leading to catastrophic flooding in eastern parts of the country.

More than 300 victims were buried in mass graves, the Libyan website Babwat al-Wasat reported on Tuesday.

“Initially, those identified were buried. Due to the power outage and the lack of places to store the bodies, the other bodies were buried after photographing them, in an attempt to identify them later,” Ahmed Al-Hasadi, one of those who attended the burial ceremony, told the DPA news agency.

He added that entire families were among the victims.

The storm swept through the entire so-called Green Mountain region and its largest cities, including Derna, Al-Bayda, Al-Marj, Shahat, and Sousse, in addition to villages and towns in the region.

The mayor of Shahat municipality, Hussein Boudarwisha, told DPA that “the torrents of rain flooded approximately 20,000 square kilometres in the region”.

According to Libyan experts, it was the largest natural disaster in the country since the Al-Marj earthquake in 1963.

The storm swept away people and cars, bringing down power poles and causing electricity outages.

Relief and rescue workers said that the massive damage caused by the violent storm has hampered relief efforts.

The spokesman for the Ambulance and Emergency Service, Osama Ali, said there is one road that still leads to the city of Derna but “passing through is difficult and dangerous due to the cracks and damages left by the storm”.

He stressed that interruption of the internet services contributed to the difficulty of verifying the reality of the situation in Derna.

Despite the difficulties and political divisions in conflict-ridden Libya, people across the country were united in offering help to the victims.

As soon as news of the magnitude of the disaster emerged, Libyans called on each other to provide assistance.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and the European Union have offered to send urgent relief aid and search and rescue teams to support Libyan efforts in mitigating the repercussions of the floods.

-with AAP