Nepal quake toll passes 4000

epa04723062 Rescue team members from the Netherlands using a sniffer dog to search rubble for survivors in Kathmandu, Nepal, 27 April 2015. The death toll from this weekend's earthquake in Nepal is now at 4,138, reports the country's Interior Ministry. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

By Hannah Edensor

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis have spent another night in the open after a massive quake which killed more than 4000, as officials warned the final toll could rise sharply once rescuers reach cut-off areas.

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, left devastated by Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.

Officials say more than 4100 people are now known to have died, making it the quake-prone Himalayan nation’s deadliest disaster in more than 80 years.

More than 90 people have been killed in neighbouring India and China while a further 7500 people were injured in Nepal.

But senior disaster management official Rameshwor Dangal said the toll in Nepal could jump once rescuers discovered the full extent of devastation in villages outside Kathmandu.

“Rescue operations are under way, and in many places where buildings have collapsed there might be people trapped,” Dangal, the home ministry’s national disaster management chief, said.

“We are also in the process of getting information from villages, and these will add to the death toll.”

An Australian woman has been killed and the government is trying to verify the whereabouts of another 200 Aussies. About 1500 have been confirmed to be safe.

Families who work in Kathmandu were packing on to buses, many for their home villages to determine the damage there.

The exodus came as international rescue teams with sniffer dogs raced to find survivors buried in rubble, and teams equipped with heavy cutting gear and relief supplies landed at the nation’s only international airport.

Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Program, told AFP the agency would launch a “large, massive operation” with the first plane carrying rations set to arrive on Tuesday.

Pledging $US10 million ($A12.73 million) in relief to help the victims, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he had been shocked by the “gut-wrenching” images of the death and destruction.

Speaking at the same press conference, Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo was sending about $US8 million ($A10.18 million) in aid to Nepal.

Across the capital, Nepalis were hunkered down for the night in makeshift tents in parks and other open spaces, many having lost their houses and others too terrified to return home after several powerful aftershocks.

Fears were rising of a disease outbreak in the multitude of camps that have sprung up around the city.

A government official said tonnes of clean water and other essential supplies were needed for survivors as well as stepped-up search and rescue efforts outside the capital.

“We need more helicopters for our rescue operations in rural areas,” home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told AFP.

The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest which buried part of base camp in a cascade of snow and rock, killing at least 18 people Saturday.

Rescue helicopters on Monday airlifted climbers from higher altitudes on the mountain where they were stranded above crevasses and icefalls.

Hundreds of mountaineers had gathered at Everest at the start of the annual climbing season, and the real scale of the disaster there has been difficult to evaluate so far.

Reconstruction efforts in impoverished Nepal could cost more than $US5 billion, or around 20 per cent of the country’s GDP, according to Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at business research firm IHS.

Nearly a million children living in affected areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said.

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