Thousands of people are departing Kathmandu or planning to do so, after an earthquake rocked Nepal on Saturday, leaving more than 4350 people dead and devastating the capital.
Residents of Kathmandu are leaving in droves to get away from the collapsed, insanitary houses of the city and to check on homes and loved ones in the provinces.
At the same time, the injured and displaced from the rural areas are flocking to the capital, seeking food, shelter and medical aid.
Buses, with people stacked on the roof and hanging from the doors, leave from whatever is left of the bus stations of the Nepalese capital, while queues of people look for a seat in any vehicle which might take them out of the city.
"I have been in Kathmandu for 10 years but we don't want to be here. I am looking to go to Parbat (northwest); my family is waiting there for me," said Dinesh Sharma, one of many looking to leave the city.
The earthquake destroyed the New Park bus station, but it continues to serve as a reference point for those wishing to leave the city.
Fatigue and tension, still mounting as aftershocks continue after Saturday's quake, have turned Kathmandu into a place to escape from.
"We have been looking for a bus to Pokhara since morning, we just want to go to a better place, but there are no buses, only taxis and they're very expensive," said Karthik AJ.
Many are opting to walk or take any available means to leave Kathmandu.
"The main issue is, there is no power in the city, and a shortage of water, and major shops and banks are closed," said Philips Ewert, director of operations for aid organisation World Vision.
Those who leave "head out to find shelter, to look for their relatives in the villages, and if their houses are still standing," he said of the exodus.
But the situation in the villages is unlikely to be much better.
"We have heard, several villages are completely destroyed and unreachable in Gorkha," around 100 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu, he said.
In Sindupalchowk district, 50 kilometres northeast of the city, "none of the houses are standing," Laxman Shrestha, a resident of Bahrabise village, said.
"All gone. We are spending nights under tarpaulin."
One man in Kathmandu said he had come to the city despite the shortages there after his village was flattened.
"My own uncle was killed after being buried under the house," said the man from Sindhukot village, staying in a makeshift tent in the capital with about 20 other people.
Ewert said aid workers were trying to supply outlying areas with the most urgently required items.
"Rescue workers are trying to reach remote villages, carrying water purification tablets and food and blankets and tents and tarpaulins," he said.
"But there is a shortage in Kathmandu as well - food, water, tents, tarpaulins and blankets."
Health and water were likely to be the biggest issues in the coming days, he said.
Nepal's government on Tuesday declared three days of mourning for the people who died in the 7.8-magnitude quake.
The government raised the death toll to 4353, with a further 7953 known to have been injured, as volunteers searched for dead and missing.
Another 73 people died in India and the toll in China's region of Tibet rose to 25, the Xinhua news agency said.
The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest which buried part of base camp in a cascade of snow and rock, killing at least 18 people on the world's highest mountain.
The US State Department confirmed on Monday that two of its citizens were among those killed on the mountain.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed that Melbourne woman Renu Fotedar also perished on Everest.
Consular officials have contacted more than 1150 Australians who are safe in Nepal.
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