The number of people killed in Nepal by the Himalayan country's worst earthquake in eight decades has risen to 5,006, a home ministry official said on Wednesday. Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters on Tuesday the toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake could reach 10,000. Nepali officials conceded they had made mistakes in their initial response, as survivors stranded in remote villages and towns waited for aid and relief to arrive on Wednesday. The government has yet to fully assess the devastation wrought by Saturday's 7.9 magnitude quake, unable to reach many mountainous areas despite aid supplies and personnel pouring in from around the world. Anger and frustration was mounting steadily, with many Nepalis sleeping out in the open under makeshift tents for a fourth night since Nepal's worst quake in more than 80 years.

Tensions between foreigners and Nepalis desperate for relief were starting to rise, rescuers said, as fresh avalanches were reported in several areas.

Members of an Israeli search-and-rescue group named Magnus said hundreds of tourists, including about 100 Israelis, were stranded in Langtang in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area north of Kathmandu hit by a fresh avalanche on Tuesday.

Up to 250 people were missing.

Fights had broken out there because of food shortages, Magnus team member Amit Rubin said. "Villagers think the tourists are taking too much food," Rubin said.

In other remote areas where rescue helicopters were unable to find a place to land, soldiers had started to make their way overland, first by bus, then by foot.

A health official in Laprak, a village in the district best known as the home of Gurkha soldiers, estimated that 1,600 of the 1,700 houses in the village had been razed.

In Sindhupalchowk, about 3 1/2 hours by road northeast of Kathmandu, the earthquake was followed by landslides, killing 1,206 people and seriously injuring close to 400.

The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 18 climbers and guides, including four foreigners, the worst disaster on the world's highest peak.