Nepal has announced a three-day mourning after the devastating earthquake. (Reuters)
Kathmandu:
Hungry and desperate villagers rushed towards relief helicopters in remote areas of Nepal on Tuesday, begging to be airlifted to safety, four days after a monster earthquake killed more than 5,000 people.
"The ground keeps shaking, even this morning it did. Every time it feels like we will be swallowed, that we will die now. I want to get out of here!" said Sita Gurung, 24, whose home has been wrecked.
As Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said getting help to remote areas was a "major challenge", aid finally began reaching areas that had to fend for themselves since Saturday's 7.9-magnitude quake.
In a televised address late Tuesday, Mr Koirala declared three days of national mourning for the 5,057 people known to have perished in Nepal alone.
The Nepal PM told news agency Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in.
Around 8,000 people have been injured while the United Nations estimated that eight million people have been affected. 73 people died in India and 25 in Tibet.
Among the dead were 18 climbers who were at Mount Everest base camp when an avalanche triggered by the quake flattened everything in its path. The victims included two American climbers, an Australian and a Chinese.
A Nepalese official Uddav Prasad Bhattarai said 250 people were feared missing after an avalanche on Tuesday on the popular Langtang trekking route.
Countries far and wide have joined the relief effort in Nepal, with India playing a leading role.
In Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts, terrified residents ran with outstretched arms towards an Indian army helicopter to plead for food and water. An AFP journalist on board saw scores of houses across several villages in the district turned into twisted mounds of wood and corrugated tin roofs.
"We haven't had any food here since the earthquake. Everything has changed, we don't have anything left here," Gurung told AFP, gesturing towards what was left of her home in the village of Lapu.
An army officer lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her away.
In another village Barpak, rescue helicopters were unable to find a place to land. On Tuesday, soldiers had started to make their way overland, first by bus, then by foot. Army helicopters also circled over Laprak, another village in the district best known as the home of Gorkha soldiers.
A local health official estimated that 1,600 of the 1,700 houses there had been razed. Helicopters dropped food packets in the hope that survivors could gather them up.
In Sindhupalchowk, about 3.5 hours by road northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake was followed by landslides, killing 1,182 people and seriously injuring 376. A local official said he feared many more were trapped and more aid was needed.
Military planes from numerous countries such as the United States, China and Israel have joined the rescue effort.
Mr Koirala told an emergency all-party meeting the government was sending desperately needed tents, water and food supplies to those in need. But he said authorities were overwhelmed by appeals for help from remote Himalayan villages.
"Appeals for rescues are coming in from everywhere," a statement from Mr Koirala's office quoted him as saying. "But we have been unable to initiate rescue efforts in many areas at the same time due to lack of equipment and rescue experts."
Jagdish Chandra Pokherel, a Nepal Army spokesman, told AFP: " The terrain is such that very remote areas take a very long time to reach and without being there physically we won't be able to reach them, help them, rescue them. Our troops are trying their best."
With fears rising of food and water shortages, Nepalis were rushing to stores and petrol stations to stock up on essential supplies in the capital Kathmandu.
Families who work in Kathmandu were packing onto buses - some even sitting on the roofs - in an exodus from the city.
Those who remained in the capital were sleeping outdoors in tents in parks and other open spaces. Many had lost their houses, others were too terrified to return home after dozens of powerful aftershocks.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed, with morgues overflowing and medics working flat out to cope with an endless stream of victims suffering trauma or multiple fractures.
There were some signs of normality returning on Tuesday, with fruit vendors setting up stalls on major roads and public buses back in operation.
"The ground keeps shaking, even this morning it did. Every time it feels like we will be swallowed, that we will die now. I want to get out of here!" said Sita Gurung, 24, whose home has been wrecked.
As Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said getting help to remote areas was a "major challenge", aid finally began reaching areas that had to fend for themselves since Saturday's 7.9-magnitude quake.
In a televised address late Tuesday, Mr Koirala declared three days of national mourning for the 5,057 people known to have perished in Nepal alone.
The Nepal PM told news agency Reuters the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in.
Around 8,000 people have been injured while the United Nations estimated that eight million people have been affected. 73 people died in India and 25 in Tibet.
Among the dead were 18 climbers who were at Mount Everest base camp when an avalanche triggered by the quake flattened everything in its path. The victims included two American climbers, an Australian and a Chinese.
A Nepalese official Uddav Prasad Bhattarai said 250 people were feared missing after an avalanche on Tuesday on the popular Langtang trekking route.
Countries far and wide have joined the relief effort in Nepal, with India playing a leading role.
In Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts, terrified residents ran with outstretched arms towards an Indian army helicopter to plead for food and water. An AFP journalist on board saw scores of houses across several villages in the district turned into twisted mounds of wood and corrugated tin roofs.
"We haven't had any food here since the earthquake. Everything has changed, we don't have anything left here," Gurung told AFP, gesturing towards what was left of her home in the village of Lapu.
An army officer lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her away.
In another village Barpak, rescue helicopters were unable to find a place to land. On Tuesday, soldiers had started to make their way overland, first by bus, then by foot. Army helicopters also circled over Laprak, another village in the district best known as the home of Gorkha soldiers.
A local health official estimated that 1,600 of the 1,700 houses there had been razed. Helicopters dropped food packets in the hope that survivors could gather them up.
In Sindhupalchowk, about 3.5 hours by road northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake was followed by landslides, killing 1,182 people and seriously injuring 376. A local official said he feared many more were trapped and more aid was needed.
Military planes from numerous countries such as the United States, China and Israel have joined the rescue effort.
Mr Koirala told an emergency all-party meeting the government was sending desperately needed tents, water and food supplies to those in need. But he said authorities were overwhelmed by appeals for help from remote Himalayan villages.
"Appeals for rescues are coming in from everywhere," a statement from Mr Koirala's office quoted him as saying. "But we have been unable to initiate rescue efforts in many areas at the same time due to lack of equipment and rescue experts."
Jagdish Chandra Pokherel, a Nepal Army spokesman, told AFP: " The terrain is such that very remote areas take a very long time to reach and without being there physically we won't be able to reach them, help them, rescue them. Our troops are trying their best."
With fears rising of food and water shortages, Nepalis were rushing to stores and petrol stations to stock up on essential supplies in the capital Kathmandu.
Families who work in Kathmandu were packing onto buses - some even sitting on the roofs - in an exodus from the city.
Those who remained in the capital were sleeping outdoors in tents in parks and other open spaces. Many had lost their houses, others were too terrified to return home after dozens of powerful aftershocks.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed, with morgues overflowing and medics working flat out to cope with an endless stream of victims suffering trauma or multiple fractures.
There were some signs of normality returning on Tuesday, with fruit vendors setting up stalls on major roads and public buses back in operation.
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