Portuguese rescuers used excavators and their bare hands on Sunday to sift through mud and debris for victims of violent floods and mudslides that killed at least 42 people on the resort island of Madeira.

Officials said they feared more bodies had been washed away into the ocean after Saturday's deluge, and flew in divers from the mainland to search for those drowned. Rescue work carried on late into Sunday.

Regional Tourism and Transport Secretary Conceicao Estudante told a briefing four people were still missing.

Miguel Albuquerque, the mayor of Madeira's capital Funchal, said some areas above the city were particularly badly hit, likening the scene to Dante's Inferno:

"What happened in the higher parts of Funchal was Dantesque," he said in televised remarks. "People were swept away in their cars, houses were swept away."

Saturday's heavy rainstorm unleashed floods and mudslides on the Atlantic island, washing bridges and burying some houses under tonnes of mud.

Francisco Ramos, the regional secretary for social affairs, said there were 42 confirmed deaths on Madeira, which lies some 1,000 km (625 miles) southwest of Lisbon and is famous for its sandy beaches and fortified wine of the same name.

The government decreed three days of mourning and called an extraordinary cabinet meeting for Monday to discuss the worst loss of life in Portugal since a bridge over the Douro River collapsed in 2001, killing 59 people.

                                                                                                                       By Reuters