CEOAFRICA gathered that gunmen have stolen $54m (£33.5m) in an attack on a van carrying foreign and local currency for the Libyan central bank yesterday.

According to source, ten men stopped the van as it entered the city of Sirte from the airport.

The cash delivery van which only one security vehicle had been assigned to protect, had been flown 300 miles (500km) from the capital, Tripoli. Some 53m Libyan dinars were taken, along with another $12m in US dollars and Euros.

Reports said Security guards "were unable to resist the 10 attackers "The robbery is a catastrophe for the whole of Libya," Abdel-Fattah Mohammed, head of Sirte council, told newsmen.

Libya has suffered continuing lawlessness since the 2011 civil war.