While relatives began identifying the known victims of weekend flash flooding in and around the provincial town of Dire Dawa -- estimated to number at least 200 -- police said some 300 people remained unaccounted for, with many feared drowned.

"Family members have started burying the dead," said regional police Inspector Beniam Fikru. "In some cases, it is very difficult to identify them."

"Relatives are reporting that around 300 people are missing, but the search goes on," he told AFP by phone from Dire Dawa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Addis Ababa.

In the capital, an official with Ethiopia's federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Office said the death toll, which local authorities put at 191 late on Sunday, had climbed to more than 200.

"We don't have the exact number right now, but it has become clear that the death toll has exceeded 200," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Residents said they were using bare hands, garden tools, bulldozers and other earth moving equipment to dig through the rubble in search of bodies or people still alive.

Aid workers said up to 3,000 people were displaced by the waters from the swollen Dechatu and Dire Dawa rivers which broke their banks overnight Saturday, sweeping through the town and nearby homesteads, killing many while they slept.

They said the casualties were mainly women and children unable to escape from poorly constructed shacks along the river's banks and that entire families might have drowned although there were hopes some might have made it to higher ground.

At least 39 of the dead are children under the age of seven, according to regional police commissioner Getachew Asres.

"I was in bed when I heard people shouting," 45-year-old survivor Abaye Baheru said on Sunday. "I opened the door, the water burst in, forcing me to escape to the rooftop ... but my house and property were destroyed."

"While on the rooftop, I saw men, women and children being washed away, while crying for help," he said.

The floods in the Addis Ketema, Genfele, Coca Cola and Aftessa districts caused massive property damage, destroying hundreds of homes, trading stalls and cutting a key road linking the town to Addis Ababa, they said.

In addition, the waters brought down electricity and telephone lines, further complicating rescue efforts in an area in Ethiopia's lowlands that is prone to flooding during the June-to-September rainy season, they said.

Last year, at least 200 people were killed and more than 260,000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region, flooding rivers that quickly drew large numbers of man-eating crocodiles and forced survivors to cling to trees to escape.

Over the last several years, flooding has affected large areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing damage worth millions of dollars, particularly to agriculture.

The floods follow a devastating drought that hit the east Africa region, threatening the lives of about 15 million people in five countries, including Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia and Kenya.

Ethiopia, a nation of about 70 million people, has repeatedly been ravaged by natural calamities, notably drought and famine.

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