Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said he hadn’t fled the country as diplomats resigned and soldiers deserted in protest over a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators that has left hundreds dead.

“I am here in Tripoli and not in Venezuela,” the Libyan leader said in comments broadcast on state TV early on Feb 22 to kill rumors that he has fled. “Don’t believe the dog news agencies,” he said, leaning out of a car to speak into a microphone while holding a white umbrella to shelter from the rain.

Gaddafi’s remarks came after his son threatened “rivers of blood” amid an eruption of violence that the International Federation for Human Rights says has killed more than 300 people. As oil prices surged to the highest in more than two years, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations accused his government of “genocide.”

Diplomats in several cities were reported to have abandoned the Gaddafi regime to protest against the violence.

According to media reports, the country’s top judicial official, Mustafa Abduljelil, resigned. Libya’s representative to the Arab League quit his post and sided with the protesters. Libya’s ambassadors in China, India, the U.K., Indonesia, Bangladesh and Poland also resigned.

The United Nations Security Council will hold a meeting Feb 22 to discuss the situation in Libya, the state-run Chinese Xinhua news agency reported, citing unidentified officials.

The Arab League will meet to discuss the turmoil in Libya. The broadcaster televised pictures of what it said were corpses of Libyan civilians killed in the clashes, some charred and with bullet wounds, Bloomberg reported.