UN: Libyan guards shot at migrants fleeing airstrikes

The United Nations said on Thursday it had information that Libyan guards shot at refugees and migrants who tried to flee from the air raids which killed 53 people, including six children.

A report from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there were two air strikes late on Tuesday, one hitting an unoccupied garage and one hitting a hangar containing around 120 refugees and migrants.

"There are reports that following the first impact, some refugees and migrants were fired upon by guards as they tried to escape," the OCHA report said.

After air raids on a detention centre near Libya's Tripoli killed dozens of refugees and migrants on Tuesday night, word of the attack quickly spread among migrants held across the country.

The death toll of the attack was expected to rise, the migrants said, as more body parts were being discovered among debris and the belongings of the structure's former inhabitants.

The total number of migrants and refugees held in detention centres across Libya is about 6,000, according to the Libyan Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM).

At least 3,000 of them are being held in or near the capital, Tripoli, which has been under siege by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) since April.

Libya is one of the main departure points for African migrants fleeing poverty and war to reach Italy by boat, but many are intercepted at sea and brought back by the Libyan coast guard, with the approval of the European Union.