SLICKS of thick mud lining York's riverside streets and paths is all that's left of last week's floods.

Businesses alongside the River Ouse have been clearing up after the city's worst floods in two years.

The river peaked at 4.4 metres above normal levels on Friday - the highest rise since January 2005, but still about a metre short of the record-breaking levels of November 2000.

But now St George's Fields car park is back open and the council clean-up operation is under way.

A City of York Council spokesman said: "We are concentrating on the main routes at either side of the river between Scarborough Bridge and Millennium Bridge.

"Our main priorities are pedestrian and cycle routes, and it will take time to reach all areas.

"However, we would hope to have completed most of this work by the end of the week."

York Dungeon was closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday due to flooding which left the attraction with four inches of water. It reopened on Monday, minus a few of their exhibits, including a severed prosthetic hand and skull which are presumed to have floated off downstream. Also gone are a pair of tongue tearers which are a medieval torture implement.

Manager Paul Brooks said: "We have had a fun few days of it, but things are back to normal now and it's business as usual.

"If anyone finds our hand and skull floating around in the Ouse, we'd be glad to get them back and I'm sure the tearers are around here somewhere."

All areas have been given the all-clear, including the riverside footpaths and Naburn Lock, south of York. The Environment Agency is advising that there will be more bad weather on the way though and with the Pennines already saturated after more than eight inches of rainfall in a week, further heavy rain on the moors this week could lead to rising river levels downstream in York.

Dick Arthurs, a Met Office weatherman at RAF Linton-on-Ouse, said: "Until now we have had an unseasonally mild January with an 11C average. This is due to weather coming from the warm Atlantic leading to gales and heavy downpours. Yesterday and today we have temperatures of 5C which are more like the norm for this time of year. This won't last though as there's more wet and windy weather on the way from Thursday to Sunday."