Earthquake toll may cross 10,000 mark, warns Nepal PM

Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Tuesday warned that the death toll from the massive earthquake that devastated the Himalayan nation could cross 10,000, and appealed for greater international relief and rehabilitation assistance.

According to reports, Prime Minister Koirala has ordered intensified rescue efforts, stating that his government is doing all it can for rescue and relief work.

There is an acute shortage of food, water, electricity and medicines in Nepal. Locals in Kathmandu and other adjoining areas are spending their nights out in the open over fears of another earthquake.

Hundreds of people are still trapped under tonnes of rubble in Kathmandu and some of the worst-affected remote mountainous areas in the quake-ravaged country.

India is doing everything possible to maximise the relief and minimise the tribulations faced by the neighbouring nation.

More than 700 disaster relief experts drawn from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed by India, which has mounted massive relief operations as part of 'Operation Maitri'. Relief material weighing 8,200 kilograms were distributed by choppers and the Indian Air Force.

India has also sent a team of senior officials from the ministries of Home, Defence, External Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to co-ordinate the rescue and relief operations.

The team is monitoring the evacuation of stranded Indians in Nepal. Nearly 5,400 Indians have been brought back so far.

At least 4,352 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris in Nepal. The calamity, one of the worst in over 80 years in Nepal, was followed by 55 aftershocks.