Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)More than 4,600 people dead. Over 9,000 injured. Eight million affected across Nepal. One million children urgently in need of help.

Those are the startling numbers that indicate the scale of the devastation from the huge earthquake that struck the Himalayan nation. And some of the grim figures are likely to get even worse as hopes of rescuing any more survivors diminish every hour.

Heartbreaking scenes of suffering and loss are playing out across this shell-shocked nation as it reels from its deadliest natural disaster in more than 80 years.

As the country coped with the fallout of the quake, another natural disaster struck Tuesday afternoon in a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu, and up to 200 people were feared missing as a result, a trekking association official said.
The landslide happened around 4 p.m. in Langtang National Park, said Ramesh Dhamala, president of the Trekking Agents of Nepal. Laxmi Dhakal, spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry, said he was aware of reports about the landslide but wasn’t immediately able to confirm details.

Quake relief efforts continued Tuesday, but officials warned that they were hampered by problems of getting aid into the country and then delivering it to some of the remote communities in desperate need.

In Kathmandu, a capital city of shattered temples and toppled houses, some people paid their last respects to loved ones taken by the quake.

By the Bagmati River, which winds through the city, more than a dozen funeral pyres burned Monday.

As workers stoked the flames for the Hindu cremation ceremonies, some mourners shaved their heads — a traditional show of mourning from children who lose their parents.

Alongside their father, two teenage brothers from the Gurung family, Ishan and Iman, said goodbye to their mother, Ishara.

“We never imagined this would happen to us. This much pain,” said Ishan, the elder of the two.

‘Many people are crying’
Elsewhere in the city, many shaken residents are sleeping in the open — some have lost their homes, others are afraid to stay in buildings that may be vulnerable to aftershocks.

Large encampments of tents have sprung up in open areas, including a wide space belonging to the military in the center of the city that is typically used for parades. One of the grand gates to the field is now just a pile of rubble.

Kisnor Raj Giri, a 22-year-old man from Kathmandu who lost members of his extended family in the quake, said he was too scared to return home. He is camping out at the military grounds with thousands of others even though frequent rain has made the nights an ordeal.

“Many people are crying, sharing their hardships,” he told CNN on Monday evening. The elements showed no mercy to the homeless masses on Tuesday as thunderstorms rumbled over Kathmandu — and more bad weather is forecast for the region in the coming days.

But in one piece of good news, Turkish and Chinese rescue crews helped pull free a 21-year-old man trapped under rubble near a city bus park in a 13-hour rescue operation. The death toll has now climbed above 4,600 in Nepal, officials said Tuesday evening, as rescue and relief efforts continue.

Dhakal, the Home Ministry spokesman, put the death toll at 4,620, while Nepal’s National Emergency Coordination Center said the number of dead was 4,727. Both sources gave the number of people injured as 9,239.

Another 72 people died in India, while China reported 25 deaths.

Most of the casualty numbers in Nepal are believed to have come mainly from Kathmandu and the surrounding area. They are expected to climb as information emerges from remote areas.

“We have incomplete information, but we apprehend the death toll will go up,” Nepalese Information Minister Minendra Rijal told CNN earlier on Tuesday. “We cannot say by how much exactly.”

The news agency Reuters cited Prime Minister Sushil Koirala as saying that the toll could reach 10,000 and that the country was “on a war footing” in its rescue and relief work.

In a live, televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the country had been stunned by the disaster and announced three days of national mourning, starting Tuesday.

The government’s first priority is to continue search and rescue operations and relief efforts, he said, as he thanked all those involved. Historic and religious monuments destroyed by the earthquake will be reconstructed in time, he added.

At least 90% of 96,000 Nepali army troops have been deployed in relief and rescue operations, according to Nepal army spokesman Jagadish Chandra Pokharel.

More than 15 countries and agencies have already promised help, Koirala said, as he appealed for other nations also to come to Nepal’s aid.

Even as international aid pours into the country, overwhelmed hospitals are lacking vital medical supplies, people remain buried in the wreckage of buildings and rescuers are struggling to reach hard-hit rural areas near the quake’s epicenter.

“The biggest problem is reaching these villages,” Matt Darvas, an emergency communications officer for the humanitarian group World Vision, told CNN from Gorkha district, northwest of Kathmandu.

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