Nepalese quake death toll exceeds 5,500

KATHMANDU: The death toll in Nepal from a massive weekend earthquake has exceeded 5,500, according to a new tally by disaster management officials.

Over 5,500 people are now known to have died in the 7.8-magnitude quake, according to an update from the National Emergency Operation Centre, while more than 100 others were killed in neighbouring India and China.

The UN launched a $415 million appeal for survivors of Nepal´s massive earthquake as coordinators warned Thursday that it might take a five-day trek to deliver relief supplies to some of the worst-hit rural areas.

After desperate Nepalis clashed with riot police and seized supplies of bottled water in the capital Kathmandu, the government acknowledged that it had been overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis.

The exact extent of the damage in far-flung rural areas was yet to become clear with relief coordinators warning that the vast size and lack of roads in the Himalayan nation would complicate efforts to reach victims.

President Barack Obama promised the United States will do "all it can" to aid the relief effort as he offered his deepest condolences for the tragedy to Nepal´s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, the White House said.

Launching its appeal for $415 million in aid, the United Nations said it would be take a marathon effort to help the people of what is one of Asia´s poorest countries.

"This will be a long drawn-out affair. It will be a three-month exercise to address the relief needs, then it will turn into a recovery process and a reconstruction process," said UN resident coordinator for Nepal, Jamie McGoldrick.

The UN said there were "significant logistical challenges" in responding to such a large-scale crisis in hard-to-reach, mountainous areas.

Many of the communities worst affected by Saturday´s quake -- the biggest to hit Nepal in over 80 years -- are in remote areas of the Himalayas that rescuers have not been able to reach.

Teenager pulled alive from rubble five days after Nepal quake

Rescuers pulled a teenage boy out alive from under the wreckage of a guesthouse in Nepal five days after it collapsed in a massive weekend earthquake.

Police said the survivor was a 15-year-old Nepalese boy who had been staying at the guesthouse on the outskirts of Kathmandu when the 7.8-magnitude quake hit on Saturday.

"A 15-year-old boy has been rescued from the rubble of a lodge called Hilton Guesthouse," said police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam.

"We are awaiting more details," he added, identifying the boy as Pemba Lama.

The teenager was the latest miracle survivor to be rescued in the devastated Himalayan nation after Nepalese and French emergency workers pulled a 28-year-old man alive from the rubble late on Tuesday.

Local media reports said that the teenager had been taken to hospital for treatment.

Many of the communities worst affected by the earthquake -- the biggest to hit Nepal in over 80 years -- are in remote areas of the Himalayas that rescuers have not been able to reach.