Nepal says death toll to jump ‘much higher’

The death toll from an earthquake that ripped through Nepal will climb “much higher,” the government warns, as relief teams raced to reach survivors of the disaster that has already claimed more than 7,000 lives.

Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat says the toll will jump once teams reached far-flung villages feared flattened in the worst quake to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in more than 80 years.

“There are still villages where we know that all houses have been destroyed, but have not yet been able to reach,” Mahat says in a statement.

“The aftershocks have not receded and we expect the final casualty numbers to climb much higher,” the minister says, as he appeals for hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign donations to help rebuild the devastated country.

— AFP