More than 600 people are now known to have died during this week's devastating floods and mudslides in Brazil.
Emergency workers in the disaster zone, in the Serrana region just north of Rio de Janeiro, have been overwhelmed by the body count.
Workers transporting bodies said they fear the overall death toll could top 1,000 as rescuers reach outlying hamlets.
President Dilma Rousseff has declared three days of mourning, government news agency Agencia Brasil reported. Rio de Janeiro state authorities said their state will observe a full week of mourning starting tomorrow.
The death toll stands at 610 people, with the worst-hit towns being Teresopolis, Nova Friburgo and Petropolis.
An estimated 14,000 people require assistance from rescue workers or have lost their homes in the Serrana area towns hardest hit about 100km from coastal Rio.
The single hardest hit town was Nova Friburgo, where 274 people were killed. Nearby Teresopolis had 263 dead, 55 were killed in Petropolis and 18 lost their lives in Sumidouro, officials said.
‘I think in the end we'll see more than 1,000 bodies,’ said a funeral worker in Teresopolis, Mauricio Berlim. ‘In one village near here, Campo Grande, there were 2,500 homes and not one is left standing.’
Authorities have also made an urgent appeal for donations of blood, bottled water, food and medicine.
Body recovery efforts have been hampered by tonnes of mud that, in some cases, have cut villages off and made them accessible only by helicopter - but flights have been limited by persistent rain that has hindered visibility.
At least a dozen remote hamlets remain out of touch, and one witness reported seeing a group of people buried in their car by a river of reddish mud.
The disaster, which media called the worst tragedy of its kind in Brazil's history, struck just before dawn on Wednesday.
Seasonally heavy rains were suddenly intensified by a cold front, dumping a month's worth of precipitation in just eight hours.
