A second British national may have died after the Nepal earthquake as it emerged aid workers have reached a hilly district near the epicentre for the first time since the disaster which killed more than 5,000 people

The Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating the reports that a Briton had perished on Mount Everest, where base camps were submerged under tonnes of snow after Saturday's avalanche caused by the 7.8-magnitude quake.

Earlier, it was confirmed a Briton, who had lived in Hong Kong, was among the victims in Nepal.

Nepalese women pleaded for food, shelter and anything else the helicopter might have brought on an in-and-out run to the smashed mountain village of Gumda.

Unlike in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, where most buildings were spared complete collapse, the tiny hamlets clinging to the remote mountainsides of Gorkha District have been ravaged.

"We are hungry," cried a woman who gave her name only as Deumaya, gesturing towards her stomach and opening her mouth to emphasise her desperation. Another woman, Ramayana, her eyes hollow and haunted, repeated the plea: "Hungry! We are hungry!"

Gumda is one of a handful of villages identified as the worst hit by Saturday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake, from which it will almost certainly take years to recover. Of Gumda's 1,300 people, five were killed in the quake and 20 more were injured.

As the helicopter landed with 40-kilogram (90-pound) sacks of rice, wind and rain whipped across the crest of the mountain. Seeing the conditions, the UN World Food Programme's Geoff Pinnock shouted over the roar of the propellers, "the next shipment has to be plastic sheets. These people need shelter more than they need food".

"More helicopters, more personnel and certainly more relief supplies including medical teams, shelter, tents, water and sanitation and food are obviously needed," said Mr Pinnock, who was co-ordinating the aid relief flights.

With eight million Nepalese affected by the earthquake, including 1.4 million needing immediate food assistance, Mr Pinnock said the relief effort would stretch on for months.

"It doesn't happen overnight," he said.

Nepalese police said the death toll from the quake had reached 5,045. Another 19 were killed on the slopes of Mount Everest, while 61 died in neighbouring India, and China's official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet.

The disaster also injured more than 10,000, police said, and rendered thousands more homeless.

The UN says the disaster has affected 8.1 million people - more than a quarter of Nepal's population of 27.8 million - and that 1.4 million needed food assistance.

Planes carrying food and other supplies have been steadily arriving at Kathmandu's small airport, but the aid distribution process remains fairly chaotic, with Nepalese officials having difficulty directing the flow of emergency supplies.

Police arrested dozens of people on suspicion of looting abandoned homes as well as causing panic by spreading rumours of another big quake. Police official Bigyan Raj Sharma said 27 people were detained for stealing.

But in a sign that life was inching back to normal, banks in Kathmandu opened for a few hours and stuffed their ATMs with cash, giving people access to money.

Thousands of people lined up at bus stations.

"I am hoping to get on a bus, any bus heading out of Kathmandu. I am too scared to be staying in Kathmandu," said Raja Gurung, who wanted to get to his home in western Nepal. "The house near my rented apartment collapsed. It was horrible. I have not gone indoors in many days. I would rather leave than live a life of fear in Kathmandu."

French rescuers freed a man from the ruins of a three-storey Kathmandu hotel more than three days after the quake. Rishi Khanal, 27, said he drank his own urine to survive.

Mr Khanal had just finished lunch at a hotel on Saturday and had gone up to the second floor when everything suddenly started moving and falling. He was struck by falling masonry and trapped with his foot crushed under rubble.

"I had some hope but by yesterday I'd given up. My nails went all white and my lips cracked ... I was sure no one was coming for me. I was certain I was going to die," he said.

The total number of people killed on Mount Everest has risen to 19, including five foreign climbers and 14 were Sherpa guides. A number of Britons were due to arrive back in the UK from Nepal early this morning on a special flight.

More than £19 million has been donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Nepal Earthquake Appeal.