The death toll in the powerful earthquake that struck Nepal and sent tremors through northern India on Saturday has risen above 1,000.
The earthquake toppled a 19th-century tower in the capital Kathmandu and touching off a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.
There were reports of devastation in outlying, isolated mountainous areas after the midday quake of magnitude 7.9, Nepal’s worst in 81 years, centered 50 miles (80 km) east of the second city, Pokhara.
As fears grew of a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28 million, an overwhelmed government appealed for foreign help. India was first to respond by sending in military aircraft with medical equipment and relief teams.
A police official said the death toll in Nepal alone had reached 1,130, more than half of them in the Kathmandu Valley. A further 36 fatalities were reported in northern India, 12 in Chinese Tibet and four in Bangladesh.
Thousands have built camps outside their homes for fear of aftershocks of the earthquake that also affected India and China.
