Nepal quake hit 8m people: UN

New Delhi/ Kathmandu: Up to eight million people have had their lives disrupted after a deadly earthquake shook Nepal, said the United Nations, adding there was an urgent need for relief materials ranging from tarpaulin sheets and clean water to soap and medicines, even as death toll has touched 4,347 and could go up to 10,000, making it the country's worst-ever temblor, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said on Tuesday.

"According to initial estimations and based on the latest earthquake intensity mapping, eight million people in 39 districts have been affected, of which over two million people live in the 11 severely affected districts," said the latest assessment from the UN Office of the Resident Coordinator.

The 7.9 magnitude quake struck just before noon on Saturday, sending buildings crashing down in the capital Kathmandu and flattening mud-and-brick homes in outer villages.

Koirala's alarming assessment of toll was conveyed to the envoy of India, China and the US as an army of Nepalese and foreigners worked feverishly to look for people who may still be buried under Saturday's debris.

But even as international aid poured into Kathmandu, with volunteers reaching some of the remotest parts of the landlocked nation, it became clear that the Saturday earthquake, 7.9 on the Richter scale, may turn out to be worse than the one that claimed over 8,000 lives in 1934.