KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Thousands of people were still missing in Nepal on Friday as food and help began to trickle through to those stranded in remote areas after last week's earthquake which killed 6,250. 
 
 The death toll could rise further. Bodies are still being pulled from the debris of ruined buildings, while rescue workers have not been able to reach some remote areas. 
 
 The government put the number of injured at more than 14,350. 
 
 In the capital Kathmandu, many unclaimed bodies were being quickly cremated because of the need to avert disease and reduce the stench of corpses in areas where buildings had collapsed. 
 
 "Morgues are full beyond capacity and we have been given instructions to incinerate bodies immediately after they are pulled out," said Raman Lal, an Indian paramilitary force official working in coordination with Nepali forces. 
 
 Many of the dead could be migrant workers from neighbouring India, local officials said. 
 
 The head of the European Union delegation in Nepal said up to 1,000 Europeans were still unaccounted for, mostly around popular trekking routes. 
 
 Officials said it was hard to trace the missing because many backpackers do not register with their embassies. 
 
 "It does not mean that they are buried. They could have left the country without telling anyone before the earthquake struck," Ambassador Rensje Teerink told reporters. 
 
 Another EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "A number of EU citizens are not accounted for, but this could be for many reasons. It is fast moving and very fluid and estimated numbers are only estimates." 
 
 The number of people unaccounted for from France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands is 371, according to checks Reuters made with these governments, while all Irish citizens, Croatians and Romanians have been traced. Other European nations have yet to provide an updated figure for how many of their citizens are unaccounted for. 
 
 Aid was slowly reaching remote towns and villages nestled in the Himalayan mountains and foothills of the impoverished nation. But government officials said efforts to step up the pace of delivery were frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and drivers, many of whom had returned to their villages to help their families. 
 
 "Our granaries are full and we have ample food stock, but we are not able to transport supplies at a faster pace," said Shrimani Raj Khanal, a manager at the Nepal Food Corp. 
 
 Army helicopters have air-dropped instant noodles and biscuits to remote communities but people need rice and other ingredients to cook a proper meal, he said. 
 
 Many Nepalis have been sleeping in the open since the 7.8 magnitude quake, with survivors afraid to return to their homes because of powerful aftershocks. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged. 
 
 Information Minister Minendra Rijal said the government would provide $1,000 in immediate assistance to the families of those killed, as well as $400 for cremation or burial. 
 
 The U.N. said 8 million of Nepal's 28 million people were affected, with at least 2 million needing tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months. 
 
 UNPRECEDENTED DAMAGE 
 
 Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said Nepal would need at least $2 billion to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic buildings and appealed for international backing. 
 
 "This is just an initial estimate and it will take time to assess the extent of damage and calculate the cost of rebuilding," Mahat told Reuters. 
 
 Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters earlier this week the death toll from the quake could reach 10,000. 
 
 That would surpass the 8,500 who died in a 1934 earthquake, the last disaster on this scale to hit the nation sandwiched between India and China. 
 
 Home ministry spokesman Laxmi Prasad Dhakal said that though the 1934 quake was more powerful, fewer people lived in the Kathmandu valley then. 
 
 "The scale of reconstruction will be unprecedented," Dhakal said. 
 
 While international aid has poured in, some Nepalis have accused the government of being too slow to distribute it. 
 
 "There have been cases where villages have pelted stones on trucks carrying aid and food supplies. They must have been really hungry and angry to do so," said Purna Shanker, who works at the government's commodity trading office. 
 
 In Sundarkhula, a village close to the quake's epicentre west of Kathmandu, villagers said they were searching their destroyed homes for food. 
 
 Bharat Regmi, 28, said he jumped out of the first floor as the quake lifted his house from its foundations. When he went back a few days later, he and two of his friends found a bag of potatoes in the rubble. 
 
 "We are living on water and whatever we can dig out from the house," he said, standing under steady rain near the highway to Kathmandu. Later, he crept back under a thin orange sheet, shared with about a dozen other villagers. 
 
 Tensions have also flared between foreigners and Nepalis desperate to be evacuated. 
 
 In the Himalayas, climbing is set to reopen on Mount Everest next week after damage caused by avalanches is repaired, although many have abandoned their ascents. 
 
 An avalanche killed 18 climbers and sherpa mountain guides at the Everest base camp. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Tommy Wilkes in New Delhi; Gopal Sharma, Ross Adkin, Frank Jack Daniel, Andrew Marshall, Adnan Abidi and Christophe Van Der Perre in Nepal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan/Ruth Pitchford) ||||| Damaged buildings lean to their sides in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, April 27, 2015. A strong magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Nepal's capital and the densely populated Kathmandu Valley on Saturday, causing... (Associated Press) 
 
 2.30 p.m. (0845 GMT) 
 
 A respected consultancy services says the long-term cost of reconstruction in Nepal after Saturday's earthquake could be more than $5 billion, or about 20 percent of Nepal's GDP. 
 
 Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific Chief Economist for the Colorado-based consultancy services IHS, says Nepal has extremely limited capacity to finance relief efforts and reconstruction from its own resources. 
 
 "The total long-term cost of reconstruction in Nepal using appropriate building standards for regions vulnerable to severe earthquakes could exceed $5 billion, which is around 20 percent of Nepal's GDP," he says. 
 
 Nepal's annual per capita GDP is only $1,000, and the average family lives in poverty. 
 
 "Massive international disaster relief and rescue efforts will be needed urgently, as well as large-scale international financial and technical assistance for long-term reconstruction of the economy," says Biswas. 
 
 — Muneeza Naqvi, New Delhi 
 
 __ 
 
 1.45 p.m. (0800 GMT) 
 
 Nepal's police say at least 3,617 people have been confirmed killed in Saturday's earthquake, including 1,302 in the Kathmandu Valley alone. 
 
 In addition, 6,515 people were injured nationwide, the police department said in a Tweet. 
 
 So far 18 people have also been confirmed dead in an avalanche that swept through the Mount Everest base camp in the wake of the earthquake. Another 61 people were killed in neighboring India. 
 
 __ 
 
 1.15 p.m. (0730 GMT) 
 
 Foreign tourists in Nepal are getting anxious as food, water and power remain scarce. Hotel rooms are in short supply too so Pierre-Anne Dube, a 31-year-old from Quebec, has been sleeping on the sidewalk outside a hotel. Friends had been staying there for the first two days so she could use the bathroom and shower there. But they have checked out. 
 
 Like many others she's scared and wants to get out on the first flight she can get. 
 
 "We can't reach the embassy. We want to leave. We are scared. There is no food. We haven't eaten a meal since the earthquake and we don't have any news about what's going on." 
 
 She had just returned from a trek to Everest base camp, which had been the "best experience of her life," but living the experience of the massive earthquake was definitely the "worst." 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal. 
 
 __ 
 
 1.15 p.m. (0730 GMT) 
 
 The Israeli military said it is sending a search and rescue crew to Nepal on Monday to help locate survivors in the rubble, set up a medical field hospital for locals, and bring Israeli travelers home. A total of 260 Israeli military personnel are traveling to Nepal for the mission. 
 
 The military says about 150 Israeli travelers have yet to establish contact after the earthquake and are believed to be missing. 
 
 "The idea is to arrive and to try to establish communication with them," said Col. Yoram Laredo, head of the Israeli military mission. 
 
 In addition, Israel's emergency response service, Magen David Adom, is flying home a group of 18 Israelis who travelled to Nepal to receive babies born to Nepalese surrogate mothers, spokesman Zaki Heller said. 
 
 — Daniel Estrin, Jerusalem 
 
 __ 
 
 1.00 p.m. (0645 GMT) 
 
 International aid agency Oxfam says it is is gearing up to deliver clean water and sanitation supplies to thousands of Nepalis now left homeless. They estimate that some 30,000 people are currently living in makeshift shelters in 16 government camps, too scared to return to their homes for fear of aftershocks. 
 
 "We are managing to reach out to people in Kathmandu, but it is extremely difficult to provide support on a larger scale to the most affected areas — a lot of the main roads have been damaged," said Cecilia Keizer, Oxfam country director in Nepal. 
 
 "Our staff is still checking on their families and the partners we work with. At the moment, all the death count reports are coming from Kathmandu Valley. Sadly, I fear that this is only the beginning," she said. 
 
 __ 
 
 11.45 a.m. (0600 GMT) 
 
 There's a lot that the world still doesn't really know about the Nepal quake. 
 
 The key thing is this: How significant is the destruction in Gorkha district, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital and the location of the quake's epicenter? Roads to the area, difficult on good days, are damaged. Learning about the level of destruction and human toll in the vulnerable mountain villages there could change the whole picture. 
 
 Here's an assessment by Matt Darvas, a member of the aid group World Vision: 
 
 "Villages like this are routinely affected by landslides," he says, "and it's not uncommon for entire villages of 200, 300, up to 1,000 people to be completely buried by rock falls." 
 
 __ 
 
 11.20 a.m. (0540 GMT) 
 
 Jagdish Pokhrel, the clearly exhausted army spokesman, says nearly the entire 100,000-soldier army is involved in rescue operations. 
 
 "90 percent of the army's out there working on search and rescue," he said. "We are focusing our efforts on that, on saving lives." 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal 
 
 __ 
 
 11.15 a.m. (0530 GMT) 
 
 Fears are growing that thousands of people may remain cut off in isolated, devastated mountain villages. 
 
 Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha district where Saturday's quake was centered, says he is in desperate need of help. 
 
 "Things are really bad in the district, especially in remote mountain villages. There are people who are not getting food and shelter. I have had reports of villages where 70 percent of the houses have been destroyed," he said when contacted by telephone. "We have been calling for help, but we haven't received enough from the central government." 
 
 He says 223 people had been confirmed dead in the district but he presumed "the number would go up because there are thousands who are injured." 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal 
 
 __ 
 
 11.00 a.m. (0515 GMT) 
 
 Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Australia has dispatched a 9-person crisis response team that is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu later Monday and "will assist in establishing the safety and welfare of Australians currently unaccounted for" after Saturday's earthquake. She says the team will also assist with humanitarian assessments to support Nepal's government and the international relief efforts. 
 
 __ 
 
 11.00 a.m. (0515 GMT) 
 
 New Zealand is sending 37 urban search and rescue experts to Kathmandu. They are scheduled to leave Monday evening. Included are experts in rubble-pile rescues and technical rescues, as well as a structural engineer, a doctor, and paramedics. 
 
 New Zealand is also contributing 1 million New Zealand dollars ($761,000) to the relief effort. 
 
 Officials have made contact with over 200 New Zealanders in Nepal and are seeking contact with others. They say they have no reason to believe at this point that any New Zealanders died in the earthquake. 
 
 — Nick Perry, Wellington, New Zealand 
 
 __ 
 
 10.15 a.m (0430 GMT) 
 
 On Monday morning, some pharmacies, groceries and shops selling basic provisions opened while bakeries began offering fresh bread. Long lines of people desperate to secure fuel formed outside gasoline stations. Fuel prices remained the same as they were before the quake. 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal 
 
 __ 
 
 10.15 a.m. (0430 GMT) 
 
 A sense of eerie calm and uneasiness hangs over the capital, Kathmandu, as the aftershocks keep coming for a third day after the massive quake on Saturday. People are still trying to absorb what's happening to them and their city. Part of their anxiety appears to be fueled by a near complete absence of any real information. 
 
 Power lines are down and there is almost no Internet connectivity. Phone connections are spotty at best. Most people are camped outdoors so even where there is limited power back up there's no TV news to watch. This has made them anxious to buy newspapers every morning. 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal 
 
 __ 
 
 10 a.m. (0415 GMT) 
 
 Near Kathmandu's famed Dharahara Tower, reduced to an enormous pile of red brick dust, dozens of people were clambering around the debris clicking smiling selfies and photos of their friends posing. 
 
 "This is earthquake tourism. This is not right," said 21-year-old business student Pawan Thapa who arrived from the suburbs to see how he could help. "They are more interested in clicking their selfies than understanding that it is a tragedy." 
 
 — Katy Daigle, Kathmandu, Nepal 
 
 ___ 
 
 10 a.m. (0415 GMT) 
 
 Facebook has activated its "Safety Check" feature in response to the earthquake in Nepal. The feature, launched in October, allows users to tell friends and family they are safe if they are in the middle of a disaster area. 
 
 Facebook engineers in Japan started development on the feature after the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. The Kathmandu earthquake was one of the first natural disasters where it has been used. 
 
 Google, which lost an employee in an avalanche as a result of the earthquake, has activated its own disaster tool called "Person Finder" http://google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-earthquake/ and is updating satellite imagery to help with relief efforts. Google is also donating $1 million toward relief efforts, the company said. 
 
 — Brad Foss, Washington DC
– Yet another casualty of Nepal's disastrous earthquake: lost wages for Sherpas. The locals who help hundreds scale Mount Everest each year will lose out on some of the $5,000 to $7,000 plus tips they typically earn from March to June since "Everest is basically closed," as the AP puts it. While some have signed contracts and will still be paid, they'll miss out on bonuses that could go a long way toward rebuilding their homes. "Financially, this is simply devastating," says the head of a climbing company. The country's annual per capita income is about $730. Nepal could also take a hit as climbing permits, at about $11,000 per person, help drive the economy. More: The death toll in the quake is climbing daily and has now reached 6,204, with 13,924 injured, per Reuters. Nepal's government says it will give $1,000 to the families of victims, plus $400 for cremation or burial. The head of the EU delegation in Nepal had a big number for reporters: 1,000. That's how many Europeans are missing, per Ambassador Rensje Teerink, though Nepal's home ministry counters that it's the first it's heard of that number. (Reuters confirmed 221 are missing from France, Spain, and Italy.) Officials say the smell of rotting flesh is becoming overpowering. "Morgues are full beyond capacity and we have been given instruction to incinerate bodies immediately after they are pulled out," an official says. Nepal's finance minister estimates at least $2 billion is needed to rebuild the 600,000 damaged or destroyed homes, plus hospitals, government offices, and historic buildings. Some 2 million will need tents and a supply of food, water, and medicine for the next three months.