Tent cities have sprung up for those
displaced by the earthquake in Nepal, which is now reported to have
killed some 2,500 people.
Many residents of the capital, Kathmandu, lost their homes as a result of the tremor.
And others are afraid to return to their homes - especially after strong aftershocks hit the region on Sunday.
It is thought hundreds of thousands of people in central Nepal have been spending a second night outdoors.
The tremor also unleashed avalanches on Mount Everest, which killed at least 17 people and injured 61 others.
Efforts to dig victims out from under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kathmandu have been continuing.
Rescue
missions and aid have started arriving to help cope with the aftermath
of the worst earthquake to hit Nepal for more than 80 years.
The situation is still unclear in remote areas which remain cut off or hard to access.
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara early on Saturday.
Renewed panic
A powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest.
The 6.7-magnitude tremor, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Kathmandu, sent people running in panic for open ground in the city.
It brought down some houses that had been damaged in the initial quake.
The Nepali Times said that some people who had ventured back to their homes had decided to spend another night in tents.
People were using any available open spaces, it said, including school playgrounds and courtyards, and even traffic islands.
At hospitals rattled by the aftershocks, staff moved sick and injured patients outside.
Doctors at Kathmandu Medical College set up an operating theatre inside a tent, Reuters news agency said.
"Both
private and government hospitals have run out of space and are treating
patients outside, in the open," Nepal's envoy to India, Deep Kumar
Upadhyay, was quoted as saying.
"We have launched a massive rescue and rehabilitation action plan and
lots needs to be done," Nepal's Information and Broadcasting Minister
Minendra Rijal said.
"Our country is in a moment of crisis and we will require tremendous support and aid."
Mr Rijal said helicopters were being used to get teams into remote areas to get a better picture of casualties.
The official response was becoming more of a relief operation than a rescue mission, he said.
Offers
of help have come in from around the world. Some foreign teams have
already arrived and are helping with search and rescue efforts.
The
UN children's agency says nearly one million children in Nepal urgently
need humanitarian assistance as they were particularly vulnerable.
Heavy rain has further worsened conditions.
Offers of aid:
US: Disaster response team and an initial $1m (£0.7m), according to aid agency USAid
China: Rescue team reported to have arrived in Nepal
India: Several aircraft, carrying medical supplies and a
mobile hospital, and a 40-strong disaster response team, including
rescuers with dogs
UK: Eight-strong humanitarian team, £5m in aid
Pakistan: Four C-130 aircraft carrying a 30-bed field
hospital, and army doctors and specialists; urban search-and-rescue
teams equipped with radars and sniffer dogs; food items, including 2,000
meals, 200 tents and 600 blankets
Norway: $3.9m (£2.5m) in humanitarian assistance
Pledges from Germany, Spain, France, Israel and the EU
'Rubble and landslides'
Nepalese
officials have warned that the number of casualties could rise as
rescue teams reach remote mountainous areas of western Nepal.
Eyewitness reports suggest that some mountain villages may have been virtually destroyed.
A man evacuated by helicopter to Pokhara, 200 km from Kathmandu, said
almost every home in his village of more than 1,000 houses had been
destroyed, charity worker Matt Darvas of World Vision told the BBC.
In
Dhading district, 80 km west of Kathmandu, people were camped in the
open, the hospital was overflowing, the power was off and shops were
closed, Reuters news agency reported.
British Red Cross spokeswoman Penny Sims said it was hard to get an accurate picture of what is going on.
"A
lot of the roads are blocked, there's rubble, there's been landslides
as well... So that is going to make the aid effort very difficult," she
told the BBC.
Foreign climbers and their Nepalese guides around Mt Everest were
caught by the tremors and a huge avalanche that buried part of the base
camp in snow.
Pemba Sherpa, who was among the first group of
survivors were flown to Kathmandu on Sunday, said he was resting in his
tent when the quake hit.
"I heard a big noise and the next thing I
know I was swept away by the snow. I must have been swept almost 200
metres. I lost consciousness," he told AP news agency.
He said many people are still missing on the mountain as several tents were buried by the snow or blown away.
Separately
rescue workers have told the BBC that climbers stranded on Everest have
been unable to get down because climbing ropes and ladders have been
swept away by a series of avalanches.
Tourism Minister Deepak Chanda Amatya told the BBC that more than 50 climbers had been rescued.
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