KATHMANDU (DPA) — The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake at the weekend in Nepal was upped to 2,847, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

A child looks out of a hole in a temporary tent in Kathmandu after a powerful earthquake and aftershocks struck Nepal, in Kathmandu, Nepal, 27 April 2015. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

Around 6,238 people were injured in the quake that hit on Saturday, according to the government.

Communications Minister Minendra Rizal told people not to panic over rumours and to pay attention to safety.

Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel asked all government employees and bodies to work on a "war footing" to help the injured and the displaced.

People try to free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building after an earthquake hit Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015.​

The Tourism Ministry said it was also focusing on rescuing the foreigners trapped around the country.

"We rescued around 82 people from the Everest Base Camp yesterday," ministry secretary Suresh Man Shrestha said.

"There are 18 dead bodies on Mount Everest but we brought down only the wounded. Hopefully there will be no more casualties."

"We are also using smaller helicopters and those from the Indian army too for rescue. We are focused on the Everest region and on Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot and Sindupalchowk districts."

People search for survivors stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building, after an earthquake caused serious damage in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015.

The Nepal Army has also deployed forces.

"We have mobilized 90 per cent of our resources," military official Jagdish Chandra Pokharel said. "We're working on a war footing and we request people to do what they can to help people around them."

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala arrived back in Nepal on Sunday after cutting short a visit to Indonesia.

Authorities were struggling with limited capacity to respond to the crisis, he said.

"But we are expecting more foreign help now and now need to work on cremating people, on sanitation, on clean drinking water."

Efforts were also under way to fix phone lines and restore power on Monday, he said.

Reporting by Pratibha Tuladhar

KATHMANDU (DPA) – Rescue workers in Nepal on Sunday searched through rubble for survivors as the death toll from the worst earthquake in more than 80 years reached 2,450 and new tremors sent people rushing outdoors.

Many people slept outside fearing aftershocks, which have forced some hospitals to treat the injured in the streets.

People try to free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building after an earthquake hit Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015.​

A magnitude-6.7 aftershock, the strongest tremor after Saturday's magnitude-7.8 earthquake, sent people running for safety into the open streets and hampered rescue efforts that were starting to intensify as international rescue teams and relief aid arrived.

In the ancient city of Bhaktapur, a few kilometres south-east of Kathmandu, the dead were cremated by friends and relatives in open fields. Women wept as men brought stacks of hay and wood. Dead bodies lay on wooden slabs.

The earthquake, the worst to hit Nepal since a 1934 tremor in the Himalaya region killed 17,000 people, prompted avalanches on Mount Everest that killed 19 people. Many others are missing,

More avalanches were reported on Sunday following aftershocks.

Nepal's Interior Ministry said 2,352 had been killed, with most of the victims reported in the capital, Kathmandu. A further 50 have died in neighbouring India, while casualties have also been reported in China and Bangladesh.

Most of the deaths were caused by roof and wall collapses.

Some 6.6 million people live in areas affected by the earthquake, UN emergency aid spokesman Jens Laerke told dpa from Geneva. The worst-hit areas are in the Kathmandu valley.

With roads and communication lines destroyed, officials said the overall death toll in Nepal was expected to rise as reports came in from remote districts, where entire villages were said to have been reduced to rubble. More than 5,000 people have been injured.

"Every house is a pile of bricks and frames in our village," said a resident from Dharampur, a small town on the outskirts of Kathmandu, said.

In Kathmandu, relief workers were seen moving iron roofs and broken walls with their bare hands to reach people trapped in the debris.

Buildings and historic monuments had been reduced to piles of rubble, including in some of the country's most ancient districts such as Kathmandu's historic centre and the royal square in nearby Bhaktapur.

"We have been hearing that another 9-magnitude earthquake is going to hit," said Anuj Shrestha, who was camping with his two daughters and wife in an open space in Kathmandu.

According to Winfried Hanka, a seismologist at the German Geological Research Centre in Potsdam, near Berlin, more aftershocks should be expected.

"It will certainly continue like this for weeks or months and only slowly die down," Hanka told dpa.

In some villages, entire families were buried under the rubble of their homes, according to distress calls that people sent to local media.

"Help is not arriving. We are here in Sindupalchowk, Bhotang-2. Nine villages without food, and homeless," a woman identifying herself as Puja said.

The Nepalese government was scrambling to deal with the disaster.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said the country would overcome "these dark times, whatever the cost."

The Nepalese army said in a statement that 90 per cent of its personnel was taking part in rescue operation and providing security. The government has said it would award some 400 dollars to the family of each person killed in the earthquake.

The power supply has been cut indefinitely in many parts of the country due to damaged reservoirs feeding hydropower production. Water supplies have also been affected.

The Pashupati Area Development Trust, which oversees the biggest cremation ground in Nepal, said they were doing their best to manage.

In hospitals, doctors were running blood donation camps and working on "war footing."

"We don't know if there will be another quake, but what we do know is that we need to take steps now to take care of the people who were injured," said Ananta Shrestha, a physician at Kathmandu hospital.

"There are flies in places where we're treating the injured, people are living in groups and sharing limited resources, there are hygiene problems. If we do not take precaution now, we'll be facing an epidemic and that might kill more than the earthquake already has."

Rescue operations could be hampered by heavy rain, which is forecast to hit Nepal over the next two days.

Some 65 people injured in avalanches on Mount Everest were flown to Kathmandu, rescuers said. Santa Bir Lama, of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, told dpa that rescuers were trying to establish contact with 100 to 150 climbers. He refused to say they were missing.

In 1934, a magnitude-8.2 quake killed at least 10,000 in Nepal and a further 7,000 in Bihar.

A magnitude 6.7 tremor in 1988 killed 750 people.

Reporting by Pratibha Tuladhar

KATHMANDU (DPA) — Hundreds of people died and many more were feared buried under rubble Saturday after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake devastated Nepal's capital and provoked a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.

The earthquake hit at 0611 GMT, with its epicentre about 80 kilometres north-west of Kathmandu, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

People try to free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building after an earthquake hit Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015.​

A spokesman for the Nepalese Interior Ministry said the provisional death toll stood at around 700 by early evening.

The tremor was the worst to hit Nepal since 1934, when a similarly powerful quake killed 17,000 people, mostly in Kathmandu. Saturday's tremor was also felt in India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Over 40 deaths were reported in those countries, with most of the casualties occurring in India's eastern Bihar state, which borders Nepal.

Most of the deaths were caused by building and wall collapses.

People search for survivors stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building, after an earthquake caused serious damage in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015.

The ancient historic centre of Kathmandu was a picture of devastation, with roads cracked wide, buildings collapsed into rubble and panicked people standing on roads as a series of aftershocks followed the quake.

"There is devastation everywhere. I saw two people get hit by bits of a falling building and die in New Road," said Yogesh Sitaula as he walked through the city. "There are fallen buildings and walls all over. People are being treated on streets. Hospitals are crammed."

The city's international airport was briefly closed as a precaution, with flights diverted to airports in India.

No commercial flights were operating from the Kathmandu airport, but Indian aircraft with relief materials and rescue equipment were landing, India's Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

The main earthquake was followed by 14 aftershocks ranging from 6.6 to 5 in magnitude.

Buildings in Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the centre of Kathmandu, were destroyed, leaving mounds of timber and rubble, Nepal's Kantipur television reported.

Television images showed scores of injured people being treated outside hospitals in the capital.

"I saw people who were very scared but also helping each other. A lot of people are feared buried under these old houses, some of them are 100 years old," Kathmandu-based journalist Kashish Shreshtha added.

"Kathmandu Durbar Square, a historic UNESCO heritage site, has turned into a rubble. All the temples are destroyed. There was a blood donation camp ongoing at one of the heritage sites. The building collapsed and it seems everyone is dead," Shreshtha added.

The earthquake also triggered avalanches on Mount Everest, a popular destination for climbers. At least eight people were killed in one such avalanche near the Everest base camp.

"The communication is not very good up there, and the toll could still go up," Gyanendra Shrestha, a tourism official, told dpa.

"We are not certain about the nationality of those killed. Several hundred climbers were in the base camp area."

Daniel Mazur, a climber, said on Twitter that the camp had been "severely damaged."

Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala cut short his trip to Bangkok and Jakarta, where he was due to attend a meeting of Asian and African leaders on Sunday.

Reporting by Prateebha Tuladhar