India on Sunday dispatched 13 military aircraft to Nepal loaded with tons of food, blankets and other aid, stepping up relief efforts to its earthquake-devastated neighbor.

Indian foreign secretary S. Jaishankar said the transport planes were carrying disaster management experts along with medical supplies and other relief material desperately needed in the wake of Saturday's deadly quake. 

Nepalese doctors set up makeshift operating theaters in a hospital car park Sunday as they worked round the clock to treat the wounded from a monster quake that has also left morgues overflowing with bodies.

As disaster officials said nearly 6,000 people were injured in Saturday's 7.8 magnitude quake, medics in the impoverished Himalayan nation told how they had been unable to save some of the most grievously wounded.

A number of Lebanese nationals in Nepal have pleaded with Lebanese authorities to help them evacuate the country following Saturday's destructive earthquake, reported al-Jadeed television on Sunday.

They urged the Foreign Ministry to carry out the necessary efforts to ensure their safe return to Lebanon.

AFP Nepal bureau chief Ammu Kannampilly was at Everest base camp on Saturday when an avalanche cascaded down the mountain, flattening everything in its path.

Eighteen people are so far known to have died in the tragedy which comes barely a year after the death of 16 sherpa guides in an avalanche that had been the worst disaster in Everest's history.

Powerful aftershocks rocked Nepal Sunday, panicking survivors of a quake that killed more than 2,500 and triggering new avalanches at Everest base camp, as mass cremations were held in the devastated capital Kathmandu.

Terrified residents, many forced to camp out in the capital after Saturday's 7.8-magnitude quake reduced buildings to rubble, were jolted by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock that compounded the worst disaster to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in more than 80 years.

A massive earthquake killed more than 1,200 people Saturday as it tore through large parts of Nepal, toppling office blocks and towers in Kathmandu and triggering a deadly avalanche at Everest base camp.

Officials said at least 1,170 people are known to have died in Nepal, making it the quake-prone Himalayan nation's worst disaster in more than 80 years.

Seventeen Indian pilgrims were killed when a bus swerved off a highway in central Nepal on Wednesday and plunged 300 meters (985 feet) down a mountain, police said.

The bus was heading to the Indian town of Gorakhpur returning from a pilgrimage to the famed Hindu temple of Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, when the accident happened. 

In the Himalayan town of Lukla, excitement mingles with fear as mountaineers make their way up to Everest a year after an avalanche killed 16 guides and triggered an unprecedented shut-down of the world's highest peak.

Some are returning after being forced to abandon their attempt on the summit last year during the chaos and recriminations that followed the deadliest disaster ever to hit Everest.

Nepalese police arrested over a dozen demonstrators Tuesday for trying to enforce a nationwide Maoist-led strike to protest the ruling coalition's plan to push through a new constitution without opposition agreement.

The opposition has forced factories, schools and public transport to shut down across the Himalayan nation to protest government plans to hold a vote on disputed terms of the charter after failing to reach cross-party agreement.

Baton-wielding riot police Tuesday hauled Tibetan protesters into waiting buses after they tried to storm the Chinese embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule.

With Tibet flags painted on their cheeks and bodies, the activists, some of whom were bare-chested and wore black masks, shouted independence slogans and unfurled anti-China banners before being detained.