The death toll from Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal has only continued to climb, reaching over 3,000 deaths. It caused destruction in the capital Kathmandu and resulted in a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.
The earthquake was followed by several smaller aftershocks, including a 6.6-magnitude on Saturday. On Sunday, another aftershock, measured at 6.7-magnitude, also struck.
Rescuers are now trying to get to the rural communities in Nepal, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. The Associated Press said Monday that the death toll has passed 3,700.
“Villages in the areas affected near the epicenter are literally perched on the sides of large mountain faces and are made from simple stone and rock construction,” Matt Darvas of the Christian charity World Vision, said in a statement, reports NBC News.
There is also a dangerous lack of supplies for the nearly 940,000 children in affected areas, UNICEF said. The organization has already sent staff to the region to help and readied two cargo flights with humanitarian supplies.
“There are people who are not getting food and shelter,” Udav Prashad Timalsina, a top official in Nepal’s Gorkha district, told the New York Times. “I've had reports of villages where 70 percent of the houses have been destroyed.”
The avalanche at Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain above sea level, caused the deaths of 17 people and several remain missing, reports CNN. German climber Jost Kobusch even caught it on his camera and posted it on YouTube. “The ground was shaking from the earthquake and as soon as we saw people running we were running ourselves to save our lives,” he wrote.