More bodies recovered from Himalayan quake rubble in Sikkim

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The death toll from the monster weekend earthquake in the Himalayas has neared 100 with officials warning the toll could rise significantly and helicopters airlifted the injured and stranded.

The toll in Sikkim - worst hit by Sunday's 6.8-magnitude quake - is now at 65.

There's been widespread destruction in bordering Nepal and southern Tibet. From a helipad in Mangan in northern Sikkim, military and private helicopters flew regular sorties, taking food and medical supplies to outlying villages and bringing back injured survivors and a number of foreign tourists.

In state capital, Gangtok, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the epicentre, government official Sonam Lepcha said provisional figures put the number of dead in Sikkim at 65.

"We fear that more lives have been lost, but it's very difficult to give an exact count because bodies are still being pulled from the debris," Lepcha said.

Rescue efforts began in earnest on Wednesday, after emergency teams and relief workers spent two days battling damaged roads and landslides to reach the quake's main impact zone.

More than 5,000 troops, including army engineers using explosives, cleared a route to Mangan for trucks carrying medical teams and supplies.

But access to outlying areas which bore the main brunt of the quake's impact remained very difficult and largely limited to helicopter flights.

Dil Kumar Sukba, a worker in a hydroelectric power project north of Mangan, was airlifted to the main district hospital early Wednesday morning.

"I ran outside the plant when the quake hit, but then my leg got trapped by a falling rock," Sukba said.

"I spent more than 40 hours trapped and waiting for help. I could see so many other people screaming for help but nobody was able to move," he said.

D. Ekey, a doctor at the district hospital, said most of the seriously injured had badly crushed limbs and bodies after being caught in rockfalls or building collapses.

Army official Sanjay Vadhera said the priority for the helicopter missions was to bring out the injured and rescue other survivors.

"We have seen bodies lying under boulders, but we aren't bringing them back yet," Vadhera said.

In Mangan, relatives of people living in and around the epicentre gathered in groups, sharing what little information they could glean about the fate of their family members.

Most had heard nothing from their families since the quake hit on Sunday evening.

Vadher said more than 40 stranded tourists, including a number of foreigners, had been airlifted to safety. Sikkim's Himalayan trekking trails are a popular adventure tourism destination.