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The death toll from devastating floods in Sierra Leone has climed to more than 400 people with hundreds still missing in the stricken capital.

Burials and recovery efforts continued on Friday amid the threat of further disaster.

The Red Cross put the death toll at 409 after flooding and mudslides shook Freetown on Monday morning.

"Today we are counting more than 400 people dead," Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, told reporters in Geneva.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, said the toll "may rise", noting the number of people still missing.

The UN humanitarian agency said it still hopes to find survivors "but the chances are getting smaller every day".

Large-scale burials have begun as an estimated 600 people remain missing. People continue to search through tons of mud and debris amid the remains of mangled buildings.

Sobbing and covering their noses from the stench, relatives stepped around corpses lying on the ground outside the morgue, which was overwhelmed, as the sheets covering them were lifted.

"I came to identify my uncle in particular, but I couldn't find him," said 30-year-old Hawanatu Sesay, after her turn came to look through the morgue.

"Let his soul rest in peace," she said through tears.

At least 100 children killed

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from Freetown, said some people have lost hope in finding the bodies of their relatives.

"There is that sense of hope among people that some of the bodies can be found and will be given a decent burial, but there are also people who have lost hope that their relatives have been buried without a proper procedure," he said.

"We are talking about hundreds of people who are missing, so the operation now will be focused on the areas that were destroyed by the mudslide."