Tonnes of aid material reaches Kathmandu airport as relief and rescue operation under way as death toll crosses 3,700.  Rescue efforts have intensified in Nepal amid a stream of foreign aid reaching the capital Kathmandu in the wake of the devastating earthquake that has claimed more than 3,700 lives and injured up to 6,500 others.

Police said on Monday that the death toll may go further up as rescuers struggle to reach remote regions in the mountainous country of 28 million people and as bodies buried under rubble are recovered. Aid effort is being stepped up, Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman reported from Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, one of the worst affected areas in the capital.

The first nations to respond were Nepal’s neighbours – India, China, and Pakistan, all of which have been jockeying for influence over the landlocked nation. Nepal remains closest to India, with which it shares deep political, cultural and religious ties.