The recovery brought the death toll from flooding in Dire Dawa and outlying areas to at least 211, but police said frantic rescue efforts were continuing as the chances of locating alive any of the around 300 people still unaccounted for were slim.

"Yesterday, members of the army and police recovered 11 bodies and brought them in plastic bags to the hospital. These bring the death toll to 211, according to our records," Inspector Beniam Fikru, a top police official, told reporters in Dire Dawa.

"This death toll is only of those who are confirmed by the hospital and the police. It does not include those who are buried by family members that were not brought to hospital," he added, hinting that many people could have died from the floods.

On Tuesday, Ethiopian Red Cross officials maintained the toll was at least 210 and possibly as high as 215, but it was unclear whether the latest recovery could have affected these figures.

Military and civilian divers joined the search in the now-receding waters of the Dire Dawa and Dechatu rivers that burst their banks on Saturday, expanding the operation 40 kilometers (25 miles) downstream, where officials said more bodies might have been washed or buried under the sand.

"The search for more bodies is going on today, also as far as 30-40 kilometres downstream of the river and in suspected areas of the river bed," Beniam said.

In Dire Dawa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of the capital, visibly tired security forces and aid workers continued to dig through mud, sand and debris with heavy equipment, garden tools and even their hands in the search for bodies, witnesses said.

Some 10,000 people are believed to have been left homeless by raging waters from the two rivers which broke their banks after heavy rains, and swept through the town and adjacent areas that lie in the flood-probe Ethiopian lowlands.

The government and humanitarian teams were struggling to deliver supplies to the displaced and other survivors, who are camped in schools and other government halls in the township.

Witnesses said crowds of people continued to cram into make-shift mortuaries and overwhelmed hospitals in search of the missing while others carried on with the gruesome and emotional task of identifying the dead and burying them.

Ethiopia, an impoverished nation of about 70 million people, has frequently been ravaged by natural disasters, notably famine-causing drought.

In the past few years, flooding has affected large areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia, displacing tens of thousands of people and causing damage running into millions of dollars, particularly to agriculture.

Last year, at least 200 people were killed and more than 260,000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region, flooding rivers that quickly attracted large numbers of crocodiles, forcing survivors to cling to trees to escape being eaten.

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