Algeria's worst floods in at least 20 years have left over 340 people dead, with more bodies being found on Sunday in the hard-hit capital Algiers.
The government offered aid for stricken families after an emergency cabinet meeting, but the gesture came too late to save the country's leaders from fierce attacks by newspapers, which said they were warned of the disaster but did nothing.
"Criminal negligence," "Carelessness" and "Desertion of duty" were typical headlines on Sunday.
Rescue services found more corpses in the debris in Algiers, and said the death toll had passed 340 -- three quarters of them in the hilly capital itself, home to some 3.5 million people.
Dozens of people were reported missing, state media said.
Heavy rain and strong gales on Friday and Saturday lashed coastal parts of the country -- Africa's second largest which extends far south into the Sahara desert --, and meteorologists forecast no major let-up in the bad weather before Wednesday.
"It was the worst flooding in at least two decades," one said.
Prime Minister Ali Benflis told parliament after the cabinet meeting the government would give about $1,300 in emergency aid to each family which lost one or more members.
Additionally, families whose homes were badly damaged would receive about $2,600 and shelter would be provided for up to 1,500 families who had lost their homes.
State media said at least 300 people had been injured and some 5,500 families left homeless in Algiers and elsewhere.
France, former colonial master of the North African state, sent a rescue team to Algiers after the government called for international aid to help deal with the "national catastrophe."
Algiers' working-class district of Bab el Oued was the worst hit, with 150 of its people perishing as muddy waters rushed through its narrow streets.
"The neighborhood is at the foot of a hill -- water poured down and swamped the area," one resident said.
Rescue workers said victims had been buried under the rubble of their collapsed homes, or hit by falling trees and power lines or had died in car accidents.
Hamid Attouche, who lives on the edge of Bab el Oued, said he saw from his apartment balcony dozens of people being washed away by torrents of water, and drowning.
"Some raised their arms in despair but we could do nothing, many drowned right there in front of our eyes, we were helpless," he said.
Khelifa Megbel clutched rolls of mud-stained cloth, all that was left from his fabric store.
"It was a surreal sight, I could see trucks, buses being swept away," he said.
Mourad Morsli, summing up the mood of the poor in the neighborhood, said: "We see nothing coming from the government despite all the talk about aid.
"Anyway, we expect no help from the government because we have been living here in poverty for 20 years and no one has ever helped us before," he added.
Algiers residents said the city center was effectively cut off from the suburbs on Sunday. However, some schools, shops, government offices, banks and other businesses had reopened.
Authorities asked residents with no urgent business in central Algiers to avoid it until Wednesday, the official APS news agency said.
Newspapers were united in criticism of the government.
"The reality of the disaster showed a decaying country and leaders who don't care whether a citizen dies from natural catastrophes, terrorism or other calamities," Le Jeune Independent daily said.
The influential El Watan newspaper added: "No warning to the population was given and no steps taken to limit the impact of the disaster -- the authorities showed unbelievable negligence."
The floods hit Algeria as world environment and energy ministers struck a deal in neighboring Morocco on Saturday on the landmark Kyoto climate change treaty.
Its long-term aim is to curb what U.N. scientists say is the artificial warming of the Earth's climate and its consequences: increased flooding, changing rainfall patterns, severe heat waves, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels.